Robins - Jan 22

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Somehow, when we talked about the premiere of HBO ‘Knight’ last time, I did not expect to be suckered into talking about robins of all things. To Mr. Martin, robins are somewhat important, I think, as there are a couple of secondary characters that are named, or nicknamed, ‘Robins’, in the honor of the bird. I am guessing that Mr. Martin was inspired, a bit, by the British folk song ‘Who killed Cock Robin?’ here. If he was, good for him.

…Robins are an important feature in the British culture; even Shakespeare, (one of Mr. Martin’s most important inspiration sources) mentioned them in his plays from time to time. Those are the European robins, Erithacus rubecula, the robin redbreast of the British poems, songs, and the like. They are smallish songbirds, about 12.5-14.0 cm in length, and are members of the Old World flycatcher family – meaning that they specialize on insects, and forage on trees and shrubs rather than elsewhere. Their breasts and faces are orange-red; their upperparts are brown, while the underparts are white instead. Overall, the European robins give the European winters a splash of color, (they do not usually migrate south for the winter), and are popular birds, especially in the U.K.

The other birds named robins are different. The most known one, of course, is the American robin, Turdus migratorius. It is a member of the ‘true thrush’ family, and is a thrush itself. In the wild, it is an exclusively New World bird and is not found anywhere else, (i.e. not an introduced species). It is the bigger bird out of the two – at 23-28 cm in length, it’s twice as big as the European robin is, and like many thrushes, it feeds both on the ground and in the trees; its’ legs are long and strong; it has a red belly rather than a breast, its’ back is black, (especially in the adult male birds), as is its’ face. (Its’ beak is yellow). It lives on the North American continent and does not go further south than Mexico in winter. It is a lively and a common North American bird.

Other robins are much more exotic to the Western people. The so-called Pekin robin, also – the Pekin nightingale or the Japanese nightingale, is one of them. The modern name is the red-billed leiothrix, Leiothrix lutea, and it is a handsome and colorful bird. It is 15 cm long, about the size of the European robin and it behaves similarly – i.e., it forages among the shrubs, and it prefers animal matter (insects) rather the plant matter (fruit and the like). The American robin, conversely, is more of a generalist, (though the chicks do prefer insects), and it prefers to forage on the ground instead. Moreover, the red-billed leiothrix is olive-green, but its’ yellow throat does have an orange shade to it, as are the edges of its’ wing feathers – in fact, they are red, orange, yellow, or black, as is its’ olive-brown forked tail – at the end, it is more blackish in color. Overall, the red-billed leiothrix is vaguely similar to the European robin, but its’ family, the Leiothrichidae, while related to the Old World flycatchers (and thrushes), are separate from both.

It should be noted that Andersen, whose stories ‘The Little Mermaid’ and ‘Snow Queen’ were adapted by Disney, also wrote a shorter story called ‘The Nightingale’ that was about the relationship of the nightingale and the emperor of China. The European nightingale that Andersen knew well doesn’t live in China, and neither does the red-billed leiothrix, but when did that stop Disney? The live adaptation of TLM was a biological/biogeographical mess in particular, so if Disney decides to adapt ‘The Nightingale’ next, why not use a red-billed leiothrix instead? It is more closely related to the common nightingale (and the European robin) than a gannet is to a sea gull…

Back to the robins proper, we have the scarlet robin, Petroica boodang, or rather several Australasian passerine birds known as the Australasian robins. Again, they have their own family among the passerines, the Petroicidae; the scarlet robin, as a sample bird, lives only in Australia in the wild. What does it look like? Unlike the previous three bird species, the scarlet robin is sexually dimorphic – the adult males and females of the species look different. Namely, the males are black and white with red, or even scarlet, underparts, while the females are much more drab and subdued. Up to 13.5 cm in length, they are roughly the same size as the European robins are too, as is their behavior – sort of. In the summer, they feed on trees, while in winter – on the ground. (Keep in mind that since Australia is south of the equator, the summer and winter months are opposite of ours).

Finally, we have the forest robins of Africa. They are three species in the genus Stiphrornis… and they are the closest relatives to the European robin out of all the birds mentioned here – they are a part of the Old World flycatcher family too. The orange-breasted species, Stiphrornis erythrothorax looks especially robin-like: is about 12 cm long, (the same length as the European species), has dark upper parts, while its’ throat and chest are deep orange… or yellow-orange – close enough. The behavior is similar too – foraging on trees rather than on the ground. Pause.

Are the African forest robins the most accurate imitations? From one point of view, they are the closest relatives of the European robin that we went through here. From another, the designation ‘robin’ is a human one, and all of the robins talked about here do not perceive themselves as ‘robins’; what do they perceive themselves is another question, one that we do not know the answer to – yet. The cow that used a human tool to scratch herself is Austria may very well know – we just do not know how to communicate with her… What we do know is that all of the ‘robin birds’ are perfectly adapted to life on trees, on the ground, or both… and that is good enough for them.

And for now, moreover, this is it. See you all soon!