European robin guide: diet, habitat and species facts

By British Trust for Ornithology (BTO)

Published: Saturday, 04 December 2021 at 12:00 am

The robin is, without doubt, one of our favourite garden birds. It seems to trust us, staying close when we’re in the garden and even taking food from our hands. It’s also become a popular symbol of Christmas, with robins appearing on Christmas cards and decorations.

Celebrate this delightful relationship with our feathered friends, with our expert robin guide, including where robins nest, what they eat and how to attract them to your garden, written by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO):

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A robin in the snow. © Andrew Howe/Getty

Do robins migrate?

Most British robins are sedentary, defending their territories year-round, with many females also establishing their own winter territories.

However, a handful head south to winter on the Continent, joining other robins passing through in the autumn on their way from Scandinavia and northern continental Europe.

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Singing robin. © Wouter_Marck/Getty

Interestingly, it has been shown that many migrating robins are faithful to both their summer and winter territories, which may be many hundreds of kilometres apart.

Where do robins go in summer?

As most robins don’t migrate, they don’t really disappear over the summer – they just become a bit less visible. When food is more readily available during the summer, robins are more likely to forage out of sight in the woods rather than coming to your bird table in the garden.

The exception is robins that spend the winter here to escape harsher weather in Russia and elsewhere in northern Europe. These robins migrate back to their breeding grounds in spring.

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Robins are good at coping with cold and snow, but far northern Europe can still be a bit too much in winter. © Andrew Howe/Getty

How long do robins live?

A robin’s lifespan is just 13 months on average due to high mortality among robins in their first year. Once they’ve passed that barrier, they stand a much better chance of surviving for quite a while – the record currently stands at 19 years.

Why do robins have red breasts?

The robin’s red breast is part of what endears it to us, providing a welcome flash of colour on a winter’s day.

But its evolutionary purpose is for a more serious role, with male robins using it to settle territorial disputes, especially during the breeding season.

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Robin in spring. © Nataba/Getty

Do female robins have red breasts?

Yes. Red breasts in female robins don’t seem to serve the same competitive purpose as they do in males, but they haven’t evolved to look significantly different from each other.

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There’s no reliable way to tell whether a robin is male or female in the field. © Paul Mansfield

Are robins aggressive?

Robins are very territorial birds and will viciously attack other robins that on their patch. A dispute starts with males singing at each other, trying to get a higher perch in order to show off their breast most effectively. This usually ends the challenge, with one individual deferring to the other.

Sometimes it can escalate to a fight, which can result in injury or death.

In some populations, up to 10% of adult mortality is due to clashes over territory. This is the reason why robins are born without a red breast, and don’t acquire it until their first moult.

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Juvenile robin fledgling that won’t have a red breast for a while yet. © Gary Chalker/Getty

What do robins eat?

Robins eat a wide variety of food, including worms, seeds, nuts, suet, invertebrates and fruit. They’ll readily come to garden bird tables, especially in winter, and a combination of suet, mealworms and seeds will go down particularly well.

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Robins will happily come to garden bird tables to feed. © abadonian/Getty

When do robins nest?

If the weather is mild, they can breed as early as January, though it is more usual for them to start in March.

Robins are prolific breeders, often producing between three and five broods a year, each containing four or five eggs.

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Robin nest with five eggs. © Brais Seara/Getty

These broods can overlap, with the male feeding the chicks of one clutch while the female sits on the eggs of the next. This enables the population to bounce back readily from any overwinter population losses.

Robin chicks hatch after being incubated for 13 days and fledge 14 days later.

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Robin feeding a nest of hungry chicks in a plant tray at a garden centre. © Bill Allsopp/Loop Images/Getty

Where do robins nest?

Robins will nest almost anywhere. Robin nests are usually located about 2m off the ground, within a recess or hollow sheltered by vegetation such as ivy. However, the robin is a particularly adaptable species when it comes to home-building and will also nest on the ground, behind the overhang of a grassy tussock, for instance, or beneath fallen twigs covered by leaf litter.

Over the years monitoring robins and other birds for the BTO Nest Record Scheme, I have come across a number of ground-nesting individuals. Nests must be well concealed to keep their occupants safe from predators, so while we might assume they are less common, it could be that they are just harder to find than those off the ground.

Sometimes, the birds utilise bizarre sites such as old teapots, a pigeonhole in a desk, the engine of a WWII plant, wellington boots and the body of a dead cat.

My personal favourite has to be a robin managing to make its nest on an unmade bed while the bed’s owner was downstairs having breakfast. Thankfully, the robin picked a tolerant person who left the nest undisturbed until the chicks fledged.

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A female robin with her chicks, nesting in a garden BBQ. © Les Stocker/Getty

Why are robins so tame?

British robins readily associate with gardeners, but elsewhere in Europe they are shy and retiring birds of thick woodland cover.

It may just be because continental robins, the migratory northern populations of which winter around the Mediterranean, have long been exposed to hunting in the southern part of their range, leaving the species particularly skulking in its habits, while in Britain we do not share the tradition of trapping and shooting small birds.

Why other British birds are less confiding than the robin may be linked to feeding behaviour. Robins take most of their food from the ground, including invertebrates disturbed by larger animals. They may view us in a similar way, as they scavenge worms unearthed by the gardener’s spade. This behaviour persists because they have nothing to fear.

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Robins have been hunted extensively in other parts of Europe. The one photographed here is caught in a mist net, but this robin is safe, as it’s been trapped by researchers to be ringed and will be released very soon. © Mike Powles/Getty

Why other British birds are less confiding than the robin may be linked to feeding behaviour. Robins take most of their food from the ground, including invertebrates disturbed by larger animals. They may view us in a similar way, as they scavenge worms unearthed by the gardener’s spade. This behaviour persists because they have nothing to fear.

What does a robin’s song sound like?