--- title: "European Robin (Erithacus rubecula) | AnimalTracks.wiki" description: "Gardener's shadow, ferociously territorial songster, and the bird that became the Victorian icon of Christmas." image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/european-robin-1.webp" published: "2026-09-01" updated: "2026-09-28" --- # European Robin (*Erithacus rubecula*) > **Status**: Checked against 12 sources, listed under Sources below. > **Tagline**: Gardener's shadow, ferociously territorial songster, and the bird that became the Victorian icon of Christmas. > **Soundtrack Vibe**: Pastoral Folk & Progressive Bluegrass // Vashti Bunyan, "Diamond Day" > **Soundtrack Links**: [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/6jaT3wEcPJSVkkGcEEp7s6) | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir5lj_LmBOk) > **Vibe Match**: Delicate acoustic fingerpicking and sweet vocals for a bird that sings year-round to hold its territory, and that in cities noisy by day moves its song into the night. ## Biological Superpowers & Stats - **Taxonomy**: *Erithacus rubecula* - **Danger Level**: Low - **Conservation Status**: Least Concern ([IUCN Red List](https://doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2021-3.rlts.t22709675a166350059.en)) - **Superpower**: A light-sensitive retinal protein called cryptochrome 4 that may let the robin sense Earth's magnetic field through quantum chemistry, a mechanism researchers are still working to confirm. - **Habitat**: Woodland, farmland, hedgerows, gardens and parks from western Europe and northwestern Morocco east to the Urals, southwestern Siberia and northern Iran; the easternmost populations winter in southwestern Asia and the Middle East - **Diet**: Seeds, fruit, insects, worms and other invertebrates, plus scraps and mealworms from garden feeders - **Tags**: bird, woodland, insectivore, migratory, super-navigator ## Natural History & Behavior ## A Compass in the Eye? The European robin's eyes may double as an internal compass. A light-sensitive protein called cryptochrome 4 (CRY4) sits in the robin's retina, and when researchers tested it in the lab, robin CRY4 turned out to be more magnetically sensitive than the same protein from two non-migratory birds, the chicken and the pigeon. Mutating specific sites on the protein revealed the roles of four successive light-triggered "radical pairs" in producing that magnetic response. The protein sits in the outer segments of the robin's double cones and long-wavelength single cones, and robin retinas make more of its mRNA during the spring and autumn migratory seasons, something not seen in chickens. In vertebrates, cryptochromes are the only proteins known to form radical pairs when struck by light, so they are currently the only candidates for a light-dependent magnetic sense. > **The Compass Kill Switch** Robins tested inside unscreened wooden huts on the University of Oldenburg campus in Germany could not orient using their magnetic compass. Grounded, aluminum-screened huts, which cut electromagnetic noise between 50 kHz and 5 MHz about a hundredfold, brought their magnetic orientation back, and deliberately generating broadband noise inside the screened huts took it away again. ## Territory, Testosterone and Song Robins hold territory as a pair in summer and individually in winter, and both sexes defend it with surprising ferocity. Male robins guarding a winter feeding territory carry low testosterone, while males defending a spring breeding territory carry higher levels, and song is part of the defense in both seasons. When a study blocked testosterone in male robins with the anti-androgen flutamide, the results suggested that aggressive defense of a breeding territory is facilitated by the hormone while winter defense does not need it, and singing rate was not significantly reduced in either season. The authors suggest the year-round "keep out" song is independent of testosterone. Urban robins sing at night in areas that are noisy during the day, which reduces acoustic interference, and light pollution, often blamed for night singing in city birds, has a much weaker effect than daytime noise. ## Size, Diet, Range and Lifespan A robin measures about 14 cm long, with a 20 to 22 cm wingspan and a body weight of roughly 14 to 21 g, and on a cold night it can use up to a tenth of its body weight staying warm. Its diet is seeds, fruit, insects, worms and other invertebrates; it visits garden feeders for scraps and mealworms, and often follows gardeners to take freshly dug-up worms. The species ranges from western Europe, northwestern Morocco and the Atlantic islands east to the Urals, southwestern Siberia and northern Iran. British robins can be seen in gardens and hedgerows all year round, and in winter birds from northern and eastern Europe arrive to help swell their numbers, while robins from the Urals and southwestern Siberia winter in southwestern Asia. Typical life expectancy for a robin that reaches breeding age is two years. The oldest ringed robin in the BTO's records reached 8 years, 4 months and 30 days, a record set in 1977, but EURING's Europe-wide list of ringing records holds a robin ringed in the Czech Republic that was found dead more than 19 years and 4 months later. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Is cryptochrome 4 the only candidate compass protein in a robin's eye? No. Robins also carry cryptochrome 1a, found only in the violet- and ultraviolet-sensitive cones that are spread across the whole retina, where electron microscopy shows it in ordered bands along the membrane discs of each cone's outer segment. The authors said that arrangement fulfils essential requirements of the radical-pair model and called these cones "probable magnetoreceptors". Domestic chickens, which also use a magnetic compass, carry the protein in the same cone type. *(Source: [Nießner et al. 2011]())* ### How weak does interference have to be before it disrupts a robin's compass? Very weak. In the Oldenburg experiments, the magnetic part of the noise that stopped robins orienting was a thousand times weaker than the lower exposure limits in the World Health Organization guidelines of the time, and its disruptive effect was not confined to a narrow frequency band. Robins tested far from sources of electromagnetic noise needed no screening to orient with their magnetic compass. *(Source: [Engels et al. 2014]())* ### Did scientists study robin aggression in wild birds, or only captive ones? Both. Researchers gave the anti-androgen flutamide to free-living and to captive male robins, during both the winter feeding season and the spring breeding season. *(Source: [Schwabl & Kriner 1991]())* ### When migrant robins arrive for winter, do they push the local robins out? Not according to one isotope-tracking study in southern Spain. Resident robins there were not outcompeted when migrants arrived, and stayed in the woodlands where they breed, while migrants that had bred closer by were more likely to settle in woodland than migrants from farther away. The authors suggest that where each bird had bred matters more to its winter address than its sex, age or body size. *(Source: [De La Hera et al. 2017]())* ## Sources 1. [Xu et al. (2021). Magnetic sensitivity of cryptochrome 4 from a migratory songbird. Nature.]() 2. [Günther et al. (2018). Double-Cone Localization and Seasonal Expression Pattern Suggest a Role in Magnetoreception for European Robin Cryptochrome 4. Current Biology.]() 3. [Nießner et al. (2011). Avian Ultraviolet/Violet Cones Identified as Probable Magnetoreceptors. PLoS ONE.]() 4. [Engels et al. (2014). Anthropogenic electromagnetic noise disrupts magnetic compass orientation in a migratory bird. Nature.]() 5. [Schwabl & Kriner (1991). Territorial aggression and song of male European robins (Erithacus rubecula) in autumn and spring: Effects of antiandrogen treatment. Hormones and Behavior.]() 6. [Fuller, Warren & Gaston (2007). Daytime noise predicts nocturnal singing in urban robins. Biology Letters.]() 7. [De La Hera et al. (2017). Habitat segregation by breeding origin in the declining populations of European Robins wintering in southern Iberia. Ibis.]() 8. [Collar (2020). European Robin (Erithacus rubecula). Birds of the World.]() 9. [Robin (Erithacus rubecula). Natural History Museum.]() 10. [Robin. BTO BirdFacts.]() 11. [Fransson et al. (2010). EURING list of longevity records for European birds.]() 12. [Erithacus rubecula. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021: e.T22709675A166350059.]() *Published September 1, 2026. 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Resident robins there were not outcompeted when migrants arrived, and stayed in the woodlands where they breed, while migrants that had bred closer by were more likely to settle in woodland than migrants from farther away. The authors suggest that where each bird had bred matters more to its winter address than its sex, age or body size.", "citation": { "@type": "ScholarlyArticle", "name": "Habitat segregation by breeding origin in the declining populations of European Robins wintering in southern Iberia", "url": "https://doi.org/10.1111/ibi.12549", "author": "De La Hera et al.", "datePublished": "2017", "isPartOf": { "@type": "Periodical", "name": "Ibis" }, "identifier": "doi:10.1111/ibi.12549" } } } ] }, { "@type": "MusicRecording", "name": "Diamond Day", "byArtist": { "@type": "MusicGroup", "name": "Vashti Bunyan" }, "genre": "Pastoral Folk & Progressive Bluegrass", "url": "https://open.spotify.com/track/6jaT3wEcPJSVkkGcEEp7s6" } ] } ```