The robin’s association with Christmas is appropriate, because it is during the winter that its colours are most marked, with its breast at its reddest and its back a rich brown, both contrasting brilliantly with whitish underparts.
Young birds have speckled plumage and look like juvenile nightingales. The bird is tame in town and city gardens, and often accompanies gardeners to search for insects and larvae as the ground is dug over. Away from habituation, however, it is shy and retiring, inhabiting woodland and hedges. Males are aggressive and guard their territory possessively. The song is a high, pleasant warble and the loud alarm call a penetrating ‘tit-tic’..
I know it’s incredibly naïve of me to feel sad that the adorable little work friend I’ve made is so nervous. He’s been persistently following me for weeks now and I believe we’ve built up a friendship, and so I’ve even named him Pipsqueak after my old camper stove, which also burned a deep red in winter.
Pipsqueak is a juvenile Robin, you can see this from his plumage and remnants of downy feathers. He is adorable, and always appears within moments of me disturbing the undergrowth, as excitedly for him it reveal delicious worms and bugs to eat, and probably why he’s so chunky. Once brimming with food he still continues to follow me, I guess out of curiosity. It has taken weeks for him to build confidence enough to hang around when he sees my camera phone moving, previously he would fly off and only return when I went about my business.
I am determined to get him to trust me further, and know this will naturally be over winter, when he’s hungrier, forcing a need to be braver as I provide him with winter food.
Come again to check the page for video updates.