European robin

The European robin (Erithacus rubecula)  song (info • help) is a small bird found in many parts of Europe. In English, this bird is usually just called a robin. In Britain, it is the most popular bird.

European robin
European robin
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Muscicapidae
Genus:	Erithacus
Binomial name
Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758)

Cuculus canorus + Erithacus rubecula

European robin song

The robin is an insectivore: it eats insects. It is a member of the order Passerine which makes it a perching bird. It has an orange-red breast and face, olive-brown wings and back, a white to light-brown belly. You can sometimes see a blue-grey fringe around the bottom part of the robin's red breast patch. European robins have brown legs and their tail is bluntly square. They have large, black eyes and a small black bill.

Some migrate, and some are resident. In the breeding season the red chest of the male gets a bit redder, and they are very territorial. No other male robin is allowed near, and they even fight other birds that come too close. The American and Australian robins are not closely related to this, the original bird to be named ‘robin’.

European Robin Media

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  European robin (Erithacus rubecula) juvenile, Great Dixter, Sussex

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  Adult and juvenile Gran Canaria robins

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  A male European Robin (Erithacus rubecula) with a mealworm. This robin is feeding his second brood of the season.

• European robin feeding on snowy ground

• European Robin (Erithacus rubecula) feeding. Location: South Norfolk, East Anglia, UK

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  Very weak radio-frequency interference prevents migratory robins from orienting correctly to the Earth's magnetic field. Since this would not interfere with an iron compass, the experiments imply that the birds use a radical-pair mechanism.