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)<\/a>:<\/p>\n Most British robins are sedentary, defending their territories year-round, with many females also establishing their own winter territories.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> As most robins don\u2019t migrate, they don\u2019t really disappear over the summer \u2013 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n A robin\u2019s lifespan is just 13 months on average due to high mortality among robins in their first year. Once they\u2019ve passed that barrier, they stand a much better chance of surviving for quite a while \u2013 the record currently stands at 19 years.<\/p>\n The robin\u2019s red breast is part of what endears it to us, providing a welcome flash of colour on a winter\u2019s day.<\/p>\n But its evolutionary purpose is for a more serious role, with male robins using it to settle territorial disputes, especially during the breeding season.<\/p>\n Yes. Red breasts in female robins don\u2019t seem to serve the same competitive purpose as they do in males, but they haven\u2019t evolved to look significantly different from each other.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Sometimes it can escalate to a fight, which can result in injury or death.<\/p>\n In some populations, up to 10% of adult mortality is due to clashes over territory.\u00a0This is the reason why robins are born without a red breast, and don\u2019t acquire it until their first moult.<\/p>\n Robins eat a wide variety of food, including worms, seeds, nuts, suet, invertebrates and fruit. They\u2019ll readily come to garden bird tables, especially in winter, and a combination of suet, mealworms and seeds will go down particularly well.<\/p>\n If the weather is mild, they can breed as early as January, though it is more usual for them to start in March.<\/p>\n Robins are prolific breeders, often producing between three and five broods a year, each containing four or five eggs.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Robin chicks hatch after being incubated for 13 days and fledge 14 days later.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Over the years monitoring robins and\u00a0other 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.<\/p>\n Sometimes, the birds utilise bizarre sites\u00a0such as old teapots, a pigeonhole in a desk, the engine of a WWII plant, wellington boots and the body of a dead cat.<\/p>\n My personal favourite has to be a robin managing to make its nest on an unmade bed while the bed\u2019s owner was downstairs having breakfast. Thankfully, the robin picked a tolerant person who left the nest undisturbed until the chicks fledged.<\/p>\n British robins readily associate with gardeners, but elsewhere in Europe they are shy and retiring birds of thick woodland cover.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s spade. This behaviour persists because they have nothing to fear.<\/p>\n![\""European\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/23\/2014\/12\/GettyImages-463071207-526c04f.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"European\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Do robins migrate?<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Where do robins go in summer?<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>How long do robins live?<\/h2>\n
Why do robins have red breasts?<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Do female robins have red breasts?<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Are robins aggressive?<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>What do robins eat?<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>When do robins nest?<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Where do robins nest?<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Why are robins so tame?<\/h2>\n
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