Christmas Birds

Despite its size and endearing appearance the robin is one of the most aggressive birds as far as defending their territories is concerned. How often have you heard the angry chattering and seen robin chasing a rival away? It is not only other invading robins that get the rough treatment, any straying bird will become the target for their spleen. The average size for a robin is around 5cm and their diet consists of worms, insects and seeds. The breeding season starts in mid winter when a female bird will come into a male's territory, probably attracted by its song. Come March the pair will have built their nest, often lined with moss or hair and the female will lay her first clutch of eggs. It's at this time that the males will vigorously defend their territories. It takes about two to three weeks for the youngsters to fledge after which time they will fly off to find their own territories. The female will then lay anything up to a further four clutches of eggs throughout the coming weeks. At first the youngsters have no red breasts probably because it acts as a sign of aggression to other robins and they aren't big or strong enough to defend themselves. I think the song of the robin is one of the most melodic and heart warming of all the birds and it has the distinction of being heard all year round. Their song is one of the earliest of the dawn chorus and can also be heard at night, especially near street lights which has led to it being mistaken for a nightingale.

Today we associate robins with Christmas, and the bird always appears on Christmas cards. A common explanation is that the Victorian postmen who delivered Christmas cards wore red uniforms, and were nicknamed "robin redbreasts". So people associated receiving their cards with robins. It was only in 1952 that the British Trust for Ornithology officially changed the bird name to 'robin', up until then it was always known as 'robin redbreast'.

The truth is probably much simpler, for the robin is most visible at Christmas, when its bright red breast, which the bird puffs out to keep warm, brings colour to drab surroundings, and the male begins to sing loudly to attract a mate. It is also in the depths of winter, when insect food is scarce, that robins are most tame. So robins have always been as much a part of the Christmas scene as snow and holly.

Ok, let's start with its colouration, originally the bird's plumage was completely brown, that is until the day of Jesus' crucifixion. It was on this day that the robin alighted on his shoulder to softly sing in his ear in the hope that it would relieve some of the pain he was suffering. Whilst doing this some of Jesus' blood stained the little birds chest and since that day all the robins have red breasts in memory of that one kind act.

Or, the chest got singed red when a robin took water to the souls in hell.

Or, when he carried fire to the earth for man he scorched his chest

Or, he went to Bethlehem to see baby Jesus soon after his birth but found the stable cold with the fire going out. To help he fanned the fire with his wings until it glowed red hot, thus scorching his breast.

biglnet's Store at Zazzle

tnbackroads's Store at Zazzle

If a robin was ever seen to hop over the threshold of a door then it was an omen of a forthcoming debt. But in some areas it was considered lucky should a robin enter the house in the month of November.

On seeing the first robin of the new year it was said that any wish made would come true, if however the bird flew away before the wish was finished this would end up with 12 month's bad luck.

The robin has also been used to forecast the weather, if it is heard singing from cover then bad weather is on the way, conversely if the robin sings from an open branch then good weather is coming.

The robin is associated with good luck, bad luck, life and death according to English folklore. If a robin pecks at your window, or enters your house, there will be a death in the house.

In Oxfordshire, some people believe that "a robin singing close to a house is bad news - and if one alights on a chair in which someone is sitting, the occupant will be dead within the year".

I have also heard tell that if a robin ever finds a dead body it will cover the corpse's face with moss and leaves as a mark of its love for the human race. This tradition may well come from the story of 'The Babes in the Wood' as it was a robin that covered the faces of the dead 'babes'.

There is also the folktale of the "babes in the wood", in which two infants are abandoned to wander in a lonely wood. Thomas Percy, in a poem of 1765, described the robin's role in the story's tragic ending:

Thus wandered these poor innocents,
Till death did end their grief;
In one another's arms they died,
As wanting due relief;
No burial this pretty pair
Of any man receives,
Till Robin Redbreast piously
Did cover them with leaves.

The oddest belief about the robin was that if it found a dead body, it would cover it with leaves or moss. So in his play, The White Devil (c.1608), John Webster wrote:

Call for the robin redbreast and the wren,
Since o'er shady groves they hover,
And with leaves and flowers do cover
The friendless bodies of unburied men.

Little Robin Redbreast sat upon a tree,
Up climbed pussycat and down went he,
Down came pussycat, away Robin ran.
Says little Robin Redbreast, "Catch me if you can."

Little Robin Redbreast flew upon a wall,
Pussycat jumped after him, and almost had a fall.
Little Robin chirped and sang and what did pussy say?
Pussycat said, "Mew," and Robin flew away.

A tradition associated with the pagan Yule festival is that the eternal circle of the year ends with the battle of the holly king, represented by the wren and the oak king represented by the robin. In this battle the wren or old year is defeated and killed by the new year or robin and the cycle starts again. Once again this belief could be another reason the robin has become associated with the Christian festival of Christmas and appears on Christmas Cards.

Henry VIII was reputed to be the first person to eat turkey on Christmas Day, but it wasn't until the mid twentieth century that the turkey overtook the goose as the most popular Christmas Day meal.

Today 87% of British people believe that Christmas would not be Christmas without a traditional roast turkey. Turkeys have the advantage of being affordable, big enough to feed the entire extended family (with guaranteed leftovers!) and fresh - if you know where to buy them from!

Around Victorian times another traditional Christmas feast was roasted goose or roasted turkey. In Victorian times, most Londoners would have been familiar with the "goose club", which was a method of saving to buy a goose for Christmas. Goose clubs were popular with working-class Londoners, who paid a few pence a week towards the purchase of a Christmas goose. The week before Christmas, London meat markets were crammed with geese and turkeys, many imported from Germany and France, although some were raised in Norfolk, and taken to market in London. The birds were walked from Norfolk to the markets in London, to protect their feet the turkeys were dressed in boots made of sacking or leather and geese had their feet protected with a covering of tar. The traditional Christmas goose was featured in Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol'.