Here in the UK, robins are associated with Christmas. They haven’t always been. Their old associations were of summer. Rebirth, good luck, maybe a visit from a lost love or ancestor. The bird that used to be associated with winter was the wren, known as the Holly King, and he and the robin – the Oak King – were in an eternal feud. Their shifting power indicated by the shift of seasons between winter and summer to winter again, as they drove one another from their lands only to come back again.
So what changed?
Well as with all things British you can usually blame the Victorians. Back in the day, Posties would wear bright red coats as part of their uniform, this earned them the nick name ‘The Robins’, and because the Victorians loved a christmas card they starting making christmas cards that featured both The Robins and robins. Our modern christmas is largely made up of different bits of half forgotten religions, obviously Christianity and a huge amount of commercial shenaniganary. Hence why we tend to think of the robin a christmas birds and many don’t even know what a wren looks like.
It defiantly helps the robins PR by being much more visible than wrens. I’m a gardener by trade, and one thing you can garentee is a visit from the local robin if you are doing anything that disturbs the ground. Most of our garden song birds were once woodland birds, which is why it’s important to put up next boxes for them, and long ago when the UK was still woodland, bogs and heathland we had boar and bison. They would churn up soil and in the case of boar, break the earth apart, unearthing invertebrates that the robin would take the opportunity to eat. Now we lack boar in most of the UK, humans have taken over this particular pastime of disturbing the earth and providing robins with the opportunity to snack on a worm and occasional grub. And so they keep us company when many birds give us space.
You would need a large garden to meet four different robins as they are not the sort to share and are very territorial, but it is not impossible.
Wonderfully Weird 