British Birds

The National Bird, the Robin.

The Robin is a plump bird with bright orange-red breast, face, throat and cheeks edged with grey, a white belly and olive-brown upper parts.

The sexes are very similar, if not identical, though some texts suggest that the brown forehead is "V" shaped in females, and "U" shaped in males, sometimes even this is not always apparent. They have got a brown bill and legs.

The juvenile Robin has speckled buff-brown upper parts and underparts. They haven't got red feathers so that adult birds do not attack them in territorial disputes. The speckled feathers are lost in a partial moult when the bird is about two to three months old.
In the winter, resident Robins are joined by immigrants from Scandinavia and the continental Europe; these Robins are paler than the British ones, have a duller red breast. The immigrants aren´t as tame as the British Robin because they skulk in woodlands, only British Robins are a tame garden bird.

Robins are territorial all year round; Robins will defend their territory to the death. So in the poem "Who killed Cock Robin?", another Robin would have killed it instead of a sparrow:

Who killed Cock Robin?
I said the Sparrow,
With my bow and arrow,
And I killed Cock Robin.