No. 1 in “Robin Redbreast”
This page is the first in a series about the European Robin (Erithacus rubecula) designed as a companion to my little book, “Robin Redbreast”. The “My Little Bird Books” series is designed as a set of easy reading introductions, with more photos than words, for people who have never before read much about birds. These online pages are intended to add further depth, with more words than photos.
This first one is more technical in style than is typical of my writing about birds. If you’re not interested, to be honest you won’t lose a lot by skipping past it to the next page (when it’s written!). However, I felt that I should at least make some sort of an attempt at boiling down to its essentials the question of where the British (European) Robin fits in the world of birds.
There are thousands of different kinds of birds in the world, and we don’t need to look very hard to realise that they differ greatly from one another. There are ducks and swans, eagles and crows, ostriches and oystercatchers, and many of the differences are obvious. Some system of classification, or “taxonomy”, is essential and thankfully there is one. Our question now though is, “Where among all these different birds does the little redbreast Robin fit?
Firstly, the Robin is a Passerine
The largest number of birds belong to the Passerines, scientifically referred to as the Order PASSERIFORMES. Often these are called “perching birds” and the structure and arrangement of their four toes equips them particularly well to grip a branch firmly (although many birds apart from Passerines can also perch).
There are almost two thousand species among the Passerines. It is therefore necessary to break them down into smaller groupings in some orderly manner.. There are Families within the Order which systematically group together birds such as sparrows, finches, thrushes, wagtails and warblers, to mention just a few. It has to be said that with respect to some birds there are areas of disagreement between equally expert scientists but the content covered in these paragraphs is generally agreed.
Robin Taxonomy – A Thrush or not a Thrush?
For many years in the past the Robin was listed among the thrushes. On the face of it this may seem surprising as the Robin (previously known as the Redbreast) is a much smaller bird than, for example, a Song Thrush or a Blackbird. However, its basic body shape is rather like a small thrush. Nowadays, though, it is considered to be nearer to Chats and Wheatears. In today’s bird guidebooks such as the Collins Bird Guide (Buy) or Britain’s Birds (from WILDGuides – Buy) that is the general area in which to find the Erithacus rubecula European Robin, no longer among the thrushes.
Reflecting mid/late 20th century thinking, the massive 8-volume set of “The Birds of the Western Palearctic” (volume 5, 1988 – BWP) showed the Family Turdidae divided into two subfamilies. One of these subfamilies, the Turdinae, included two tribes (i) chats, with c.33 genera, and (ii) the true thrushes, Turdini, with c.15 genera. The Erithacus genus was placed among the chats, along with redstarts, nightingales, wheatears and more.
“The Handbook of Bird Families” (Elphick, 2019, Pub. Natural History Museum – Buy) reflects early 21st century thinking and within the Order Passeriformes completely separates the chats and Old World flycatchers from the Turdidae into the family Muscicapidae. This then contains two large subfamilies plus two small subfamilies one of which is the subfamily Cossyphinae, and that is where today you will find Erithacus rubecula.
(I am tempted to ask, Did you really want to know all that? In my humble opinion, although most certainly valuable scientifically it is almost totally irrelevant to normal birdwatching. In any case, as more genetic studies of bird DNA are carried out they are almost certain to lead to changes in classification as the interrelationships between species become better understood – and inevitably there will be surprises).
Incidentally, the American Robin, a very different bird Turdus migratorius, is placed among the true thrushes and described in BWP as a “quite large, robust thrush” with similarities to the Blackbird.
The European Robin – Are they all the same?
What about our “British Robin”? Is it exactly the same as robins found all over Europe and into Asia. Well, yes and no! The species Erithacus rubecula may be the same, but there are recognised subspecies. The British and Irish race, Erithacus rubecula melophilus, is described as having “upperparts warmer and darker tawny-brown” and “chest deeper rufous-orange” than the continental European E. r. rubecula. (I wish I had comparative photos, but I haven’t; If ever I do I’ll update this page).
There are also six other subspecies found in Crimea, the Caucasus, Asia, N. Africa and the Atlantic islands. From the point of view of a British birdwatcher, however, it is safe to assume that the birds we see settled here in Spring and Summer are the melophilus subspecies, though in winter months we can have an influx of continental birds migrating away from areas of more extreme cold, some passing through and some wintering here.
