Why are Robins so tame? (1 Viewer)

[billsbirding]

It's a question I asked myself the other morning whilst watching quite a large cold weather movement occur in the garden with Blackcaps, Chaffinches and larger numbers of Song Thrushes, Redwings and Blackbird feeding in the garden.

It seems you can get closer to a Robin (whether it be tamed due to daily human contact or out in the countryside with little or no human contact) than you can most other wild passerines.

It seems relatively simple to get a Robin fearless enough to feed from your hand, but it would take quite some time to get the same trust from a tit, finch or warbler... if it can actually be done at all?!

So my question is why are Robins so tame, even without being purposely tamed by people... if you get what I mean?

 

[dantheman]

'cos back in the days of the primeval forests (or something like that) they formed an association with the wild boar rooting around in the undergrowth and digging for roots, in order to be able to catch invertebrates unearthed (worms, larvea etc). And presumably did the same with early humans. Yellow Wagtails follow cattle in a similar kind of way - seeking food disturbed by the big herbivore.


Hence the typical christmas card pose of a Robin on an allotment spade etc etc. And the fact that they see humans, in the right circumstance, as less of a threat and more as a potential source of food (not in the evil vulture kind-of-way of course).

 

[colonelboris]

However, on the continent, they can be rather hard to get close to, even in an urban setting (although they're more of a woodland bird over there). The closest I got to one in my two years in Switzerland was maybe five or six metres, whereas I've had one perch on my foot back in Blighty.

 

[dantheman]

I guess too that it would be an association benefiting both - the Robin would perhaps be an extra pair of eyes on the lookout for predators.

On the tame bird front - a member on here from one of the scandivian countries I believe has posted pics of Great/ Willow Tit feeding from their hand - the cold and lack of cold being a factor presumably...

 

[Apodemus]

- the cold and lack of cold being a factor presumably...

Definitely true or not true

 

[dantheman]

Definitely true or not true

There may even or may have not been a dead or not goose in one of their hands at the time too - although probably not.

That should have read - "cold and lack of food"

(In my defence I was trying (ok, unsuccessfully) to multitask at the time as I was also on the phone ... lol)

 

[Jos Stratford]

(In my defence I was trying (ok, unsuccessfully) to multitask at the time as I was also on the phone ... lol)

Had you said trying to type, talk on the phone and drive at the same time, we really would have been impressed

 

[dantheman]

Had you said trying to type, talk on the phone and drive at the same time, we really would have been impressed

It's doing the first 2 together that (I reckon) use the same part of the brain that makes them difficult - driving would be different and impressive, although admittedly not usually that clever. I was also breathing (mostly) and drinking tea. Anyway, we digress ...