A Robin, a popular resident bird in the UK foraging in the undergrowth for food. SCO 9273.
The distinctive orange breast of both sexes contributed to the European robin's original name of redbreast (orange as the name of a colour was unknown in English until the sixteenth century, by which time the fruit of that name had been introduced). In the fifteenth century, when it became popular to give human names to familiar species, the bird came to be known as robin redbreast, which was eventually shortened to robin. Other older English names for the bird include ruddock and robinet. In American literature of the late 19th century, this robin was frequently called the English robin. The Frisian robyntsje or robynderke is similar to the English name, while Dutch roodborstje and French rouge-gorge both refer to the distinctively coloured front. In German the bird is called "Rotkehlchen", literally a diminutive of "Red Throat". The robin belongs to a group of mainly insectivorous birds that have been variously assigned to the thrushes or "flycatchers", depending on how these groups were perceived taxonomically. Eventually, the flycatcher-thrush assemblage was re-analysed and the genus Erithacus assigned to a group of thrush-like true flycatchers, the tribe Saxicolini, that also includes the common nightingale and the Old World chats.
Size: 5380px × 4547px
Location: Grantown on Spey, Inverness-shire. Highland region. Scotland. UK.
Photo credit: © David Gowans / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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