Happy Hippy: about Robins

Hello Happy Hippy.

In another thread, you asked a couple of questions about Robins, including how to hand-tame them. I think I can help you out here. I don�t want to hijack that thread so I�ve started a new one.

Firstly, you asked why there were three Robins wintering in your garden, when robins are so fiercely territorial. There are two possible reasons that I can think of.

If you have a large garden, it may simply be that it sits at the meeting point of three separate territories, but if this was the case you would expect to see a great deal more territorial conflict than you suggested in your post.

I think it more likely, especially given your geographical location, that one (or more) of your birds was actually Norwegian. You may not be aware, but a large part of the Scandinavian Robin population spends the winter in Britain, and, although both male and female Robins defend winter territories (sometimes to the death), where there is a regular and abundant food supply, as at a well-supplied bird-table, the resident birds may well relax and tolerate the presence of incomers.


Now, to the matter of hand-taming Robins and other birds. It can be done, I�ve done it myself, and, if you have the time and patience to follow these instructions, you can too.

The best bird to do this with is a juvenile (young Robins are particularly tame, even for Robins), and the best time of year to do it is late July through August. If your resident pair has had a successful breeding season, you should see one or two youngsters hanging around your garden at this time, recognisable by their speckled plumage and lack of red breast.

Once you�ve established that a young bird is frequenting your garden, take a handful of Robin food (cheese is good), and find somewhere comfortable in the garden to sit, at a distance from the bird-table. It�s best if you are either sitting on the ground, or you have a table or similar within arm�s reach. Make sure the garden is quiet and you won�t be disturbed for a while.

Sit quietly and wait for the bird to turn up (it will, they�re very curious by nature). When it�s in the nearby shrubs, gently toss a morsel of food onto the lawn, at about 10ft distance and where the bird can see it. Wait for it to fly down and eat. When it�s returned to the shrubbery, repeat. Carry on doing this until the bird is obviously confident feeding in your presence, and is starting to associate you with food.

After a while, start decreasing the distance you throw the food, bit by bit. Eventually, you will reach a point where the bird won�t come any closer. Continue feeding at this distance until either it�s eaten its fill and loses interest, or the food runs out. You may then retire.

Repeat the next day, and for successive days if it takes that long, until the bird is taking food no more than an arms length from you (off the table if you are using one). At this point, you can try resting your empty hand, palm up, on the ground or table next to you, a few inches from the food.

The next stage is to hold some food in your palm and place your hand at arms length. It might also be a good idea to place a short trail of food leading to your hand. By now the bird should be confident enough to feed from your hand. If not, and if you can bear it, you could try using mealworms.

If you�re lucky, you could reach this point in just one session, or it might take a few days, depending on the bird. Once you have reached it, it will then soon be willing to feed if you�re standing up, or if other people are present, and then from the hands of other people.

Many years ago, as a teenager on a family holiday in Devon, I used this technique to tame a young Robin in the garden of the cottage we stayed in. I�ve no doubt you can do it too; just be patient, take it in stages, and don�t make any sudden movements.

Adult Robins and other species can also be hand-tamed, but I understand this takes longer, is best done in the winter, and is not so much a matter of bringing the bird closer to you, as it is of you gradually getting closer to the bird-table. I�ve not tried it myself; if you do, I�d like to know how you get on.

Enjoy,
Geometer

 

That is exactly the method I used only it was the cheeky sparows that would take food from my hand. Also, at the moment I've a very tame blackbird in one of 'my' gardens that will do handstands and backflips for any chafer grubs or vine weevils I find and I'm sure it would take very little effort to get it hand feeding. When I'm digging if I find any morsals I just whistle and it will turn up. Mrs Blackbird is a bit more wary but is catching on.

I also had a tame jackdaw found injured when I was a kid and once back in health it was set free but would tap on my bedroom window to be let back in! It also terrorised the cat. :D

 

That's very interesting Geometer, I must admit that they seem so friendly when you are digging and they are almost standing on your shoe.

Justs one thing that bothers me a bit, whilst it would be very nice to be able to feed them out of your hand, what would it do for the robin?

He isn't really being friendly, that's just wishful thinking, so wouldn't it make him more vulnerable if he completely loses his fear of humans?

I thought the idea was not to domesticate wild creatures for this very reason.

I love robins and would truly like to do this, but first please convince me that it is justified?

 

That's a very good question DAG. I can't give you a definitive answer to that, I can only speculate, but my speculation is based on nearly 40 years of birdwatching.

In short, I think probably not, or at least not to a significant degree. The question I'd ask is, in a garden environment, what is there to be vulnerable to? The biggest threats to a young Robin's survival are predators like cats and sparrowhawks, and close proximity to a human being is more likely to reduce these threats than increase them.

Hand-taming a wild bird is not the same as domestication or hand-rearing. Wild birds are innately cautious, and while hand-taming may increase confidence, it's not going wipe out all sense of caution; and while there may be a few people spiteful enough to kill an exceptionally tame Robin, I have enough faith in human nature to believe they are few and far between - and any bird is as vulnerable to an air rifle at twenty yards as it is at twenty feet.

This is a very interesting question. I hope I've reassured you, but for my own peace of mind I think I'll post it on WildaboutBritain and get some more opinions.

Geometer

 

Thanks Geometer, take your point so far, look forward to hearing from you again!