Shot through the kitchen window, Colerne, Wiltshire, this morning – Robin AS SEEN by NIkon D3000, in RAW with Tamron 18mm – 200mm lens

F Stop: f6.3
Exp 1/400 sec
ISO 800
Focal length 200mm
Apt 5.3
Pattern mode
Flash not used

The National Bird and a common favourite, the Robin is easily recognised by most people.

The Robin is a plump bird with bright orange-red breast, face, throat and cheeks edged with grey, a white belly and olive-brown upper parts.

The sexes are very similar, if not identical, though some texts suggest that the brown forehead is “V” shaped in females, and “U” shaped in males, though even this is not always apparent. They have a brown bill and legs.

The juvenile Robin has speckled buff-brown upper parts and underparts. They have no red feathers so that adult birds do not attack them in territorial disputes. The speckled feathers are lost in a partial moult when the bird is about two to three months old.

In the winter, resident birds are joined by immigrants from continental Europe, mostly from Scandinavia; these Robins are paler than ours, have a duller red breast. The immigrants are also generally less tame because they skulk in woodlands, only British Robins are a tame garden bird.

Robins are territorial all year round; during the spring and summer this territoriality is for breeding, but at other times individual robins hold territories for feeding. Robins will defend their territories to the death, and so in the poem “Who killed Cock Robin?”, another Robin rather than a sparrow would be more likely:

Who killed Cock Robin?
I said the Sparrow,
With my bow and arrow,
And I killed Cock Robin.