Festive Feathered Friend

- Tony Jackson

THERE is no bird more closely associated with December and the Festival of Christmas than the robin redbreast, nor is there, I suggest, a bird more popular or better known, whether in town or country. Indeed, this perky, friendly little bird has in the past been voted “national bird” and, I believe, with good cause.

Resident countrywide, the robin is perhaps the only bird content to put its trust in man and to share his homestead, for not only will this little robin follow the gardener, ever hopeful for the odd spade-ejected worm, but will even enter the house in search of crumbs.

The only British bird with a vivid red breast, the robin has long been the subject over the years of verse and myth, not least the 18th century rhyme