A pair of Robins! (1 Viewer)

Apologies: I'm a little on a high today because for the first time I saw a pair of Robins visiting the table! B :-O

Over the past couple of years we used to see only one, always on his own and unfortunately I found a dead Robin earlier this year in a corner of the Garden.
So I thought that was it: But now I feel like a child with a new toy being able to see these 2 together! :-O:-O

I don't know if you guys & girls can recognise the birds that come to your table and are able to say which one is which? (If you can please can you give me some tips as to what to look for? - I don't mean bird species or type, I mean actual bird individuals within the same specie).

I am only able to do this for some: For example we have this little blue tit which I call "fluffy": he is very characteristic as last year something must have happened to him: His chest was completely dark with very little amount of yellow feathers (hence the name). Over the last few months they have been growing and now there is only a little bit of black left in the center of his chest. (I am talking about a blue tit and not a great tit honestly :-O ).

I saw him today and was delighted to see that he survived the winter as he is much smaller than the others! (great tits, greenfinches and chaffinches and sparrows which are common around our feeders look very big compare to him). I want to try identify more like this as I wonder how many have survived this particularly bad winter we have had (not so much snow and ice but lots of rain and very high winds / storm for days asfter days).

On that note, this "fluffy" guy was an early adopter of bird boxes I put out last year. He did get a female to join him but I dont believe they had eggs in there: I did not want to touch the box too much, so I opened whilst it was still on the tree and as I could not look inside (too high and I am a shorty) I took a pic to look at later. It looks dry and I cannot see any bird shells or much mess you would expect from a lot of birdies.

I will do some reading on the subject but if somebody can answer: when is the best time (and should you) clean the boxes (if they are still dry)?
This one looks really comfy with lots of soft strings of moss so dont want to destroy something they may re-use.

Many thanks and enjoy the sunshine while it lasts! (Well it is sunny here at last today!)

Cheers,

David

I'm not an avid believer in cleaning the nest boxes so long as their are no old eggs/ dead birds in there. Sometimes the nest may attract mites etc so this is when it helps to clean it out, but most birds still use natural nesting sites and will do the 'cleaning' themselves. If you're going to do it, some time between October and Feb is normally OK. Most garden birds will begin inspecting potential nest sites in Feb so if you want to do it this year do it now, but I wouldn't worry.

Identifying 'your' garden birds is often impossible. Sometimes, as with your Blue Tit, there may be tell-tale signs giving it away, but, for example, we have had 787 Blue Tits ringed here in 3 years, so differentiating between them is impossible. Also, we've had 30 Robins ringed, so again there may be more than just your two but you don't always see them all together!

Your dead robin could well be the result of a meeting with another robin.

I have had several delightful tame and friendly robins here over the years, only to see another male arrive, shortly followed by the death of the incumbent.

Hi Joe,

Thanks for your reply: I have left too late and won't touch it in that case as it looks like there is a lot of activity in the garden with the little sunshine we have had.

Wow I'm impressed with the number you have ringed. Is this over a large area?

Hi Grobble!

Flippin' heck! I didnt consider that Robin could have been murdered! Is this something you think is common for them to gain territory? Do they really battle until exhaustion?

I thought it was my fault if I am being honest: I had left an empty terracota pot outside: there was no hole at the bottom and it filled up with rain water. It was crystal clear and one morning I found a dead Robin in it. It never occured to me it could have been a danger for the birds until then. I have removed it as there are other water sources in the garden which are safer to land on or around.

Hi David,

Not a large area, it's done in our Nature Area: http://featherswildbirdcare.co.uk/web/naturearea.html

It's really just a small garden size, but it's designed specifically for birds and other wildlife and because we are quite rural with plenty of trees etc it attracts a lot of birds. As I mentioned, the numbers we've had (about 1700 birds overall) is over 3 years, so a lot of the birds that were ringed in 2011 will have died now with new birds being ringed each year. Really interesting though! We've had a few 'control' birds (ringed at other sites) and had a Siskin last year caught here in February and found dead on the Isle of Skye (800km away) two months later. Unfortunate for the bird but just a small example of the value of ringing.

Back to Robins, yes they can fight to the death. Also happens with Blackbirds, particularly over the winter when migrant birds join our residents.

JoeRawles said:

Back to Robins, yes they can fight to the death. Also happens with Blackbirds, particularly over the winter when migrant birds join our residents.

Click to expand...

At least one robin has been known to kill itself through exhaustion 'fighting the robin in the wing mirror'.

This is why juvenile male robins have a pale pink chest just to avoid provoking their dad.

Thanks Joe & Grobble....

800km for a Siskin that's amazing!
Let's assume a Siskin is around 10cm head to tale (probably smaller) and a average human is around 180cm (ie 18 x taller)... that's the equivalent of a human travelling over 14,000 km with nothing than just our legs... 800km is already a challenge of course, nevermind 14,000.

Just had a quick look at the web site! Like it, particularly the pics of the nature area! Thank you.