The life of the
Robin David Lack
introduced by David Lindo
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The Life of the Robin In this classic of natural history, David Lack helps us to understand the sometimes curious habits of our red-breasted garden companions. With a mixture of scientific objectivity, easy speculation and friendly enthusiasm, each chapter considers a different aspect of the robin’s behaviour. Topics include song, territory, courtship, migration and the robin’s raising of its young. Lack’s own findings are supplemented throughout with references to other scientific studies and to observations of lay ornithologists who have written to him. Meanwhile, Lack’s references to the robin’s numerous appearances throughout English literature reveal Britain’s long relationship with our newly voted national bird. Unavailable for many years, this classic work is introduced by one of today’s best-known ornithologists, David Lindo, Urban Birder and organiser of the 2015 vote. Other additions are provided by the author’s son, Peter Lack, and by the doyen of robin studies today, David Harper, who describes recent advances in robin studies. The book is illustrated by Robert Gillmor, recipient of the RSPB medal, and completed by Lack’s bibliography and a fully updated index.
About the authors David Lack (1910-1973) was a British evolutionary biologist who began his scientific observations while working as a schoolteacher at Dartington Hall. He made major contributions to ornithology, ecology and ethology, and his pioneering life-studies helped ornithology to become respected as a serious science. David Lindo – the Urban Birder – is a naturalist, writer, broadcaster and educationalist. He has contributed to many shows and publications, including Springwatch, BBC Wildlife Magazine and the RSPB’s Birds. He now travels the world teaching people about the amazing urban wildlife on their doorstep. Peter Lack is David Lack’s son. Based at the British Trust for Ornithology, he has published extensively about birds, with particular interests in birds in winter, migration strategies and African birds. David Harper is senior lecturer in evolutionary biology at the University of Sussex. In addition to lecturing, he researches the behavioural ecology of passerine birds, especially robins. Robert Gillmor is an ornithologist, artist, author and editor. He is perhaps best known for his covers for the Collins New Naturalist series. He is also a founding member of the Society of Wildlife Artists, and a recipient of both the RSPB medal and an MBE.
the life of the robin
The Life of the
Robin DAVID LACK Introduction by David Lindo Postscripts by David Harper and Peter Lack Illustrated by Robert Gillmor
PALLAS
ATHENE
Contents
introduction
xiii
preface
1
preface to fourth edition
4
note to this edition
7
1 my robins
9
Methods of trapping and individual marking – The robin’s curiosity and alleged covering of dead bodies – Cock and hen look alike – The aviaries – Summarized life history and its detailed sequence in one wood.
2 song
23
Song period – Individual variation – Bird song partly inaudible – Are birds happy? – Singing confined to the territory – Female song in birds – Song saves fights – The Bohemian crusade – The aviary robins keep wild ones away – Battle music – Singing for mates – Singing when alarmed – Song distinctive – Mimicry – Talking birds – Is bird song inherited or acquired? – The significance of song in late summer.
3 the red breast
36
The robin’s names – Dawn watching – Description and meaning of the robin’s display – The hen also displays – A scarlet sweater – Threat display in other birds – Types of attitude found in bird display and their suggested origin and evolution – Colour emphasizes display and acts as a recognition mark – Display is conventional – Display ‘stimulates’.
4 fighting
the life of the robin
47
The territory owner usually wins – Food trespassing – Boundary disputes – Instinct superior to reason – Seasonal variations – Sex differences – Alleged parricide and infanticide – Deplorable Christmas card – Claiming new territory and ejection of an owner – Fighting usually bloodless, occasionally fierce – Its decline in captivity – How birds employ their spare time – Fighting a reflection.
5 the formation of pairs
59
Time of pair-formation in British song-birds – Sexual selection – Description of pair-formation – Much fighting and singing in first phase, and adjustment only gradual – Sex recognition in the robin and other birds – Later phases of pair -formation – Individual recognition of mate – Separation of pair in cold weather – Desertion – Bigamy – Re-mating – Life-pairing.
6 courtship
71
Courtship used in three senses – The robin’s pre-coitional display extremely slight – Display may stimulate egg-laying – Courtship after the eggs are laid – Courtship-feeding – Its emotional value – ‘Maleness’ and ‘femaleness’ in birds – Juvenile behaviour in courtship – Billing – Adoption of juvenile behaviour by injured birds – Courtship-feeding outside birds.
7 nest, eggs, and young
81
Breeding season – Nesting sites, normal and curious – Competition with other species – Multiple nesting – Turner’s domed nest closed with oak leaves – Clutch size, and effect of removing or adding eggs – Value of clutch size – Reason for coloration of eggs – Rejection of cuckoo’s egg – Incubation – Feeding of young – Recognition of fledgling by parent and parent by fledgling, and comparison with gulls – Age at which independent – Further broods – Dangers to eggs and young.
8 migration
103
Most males are resident, some may migrate; most females migrate, some are resident – Time of arrival of females – Winter sex ratio – British robins abroad – Migration within Britain – Bastwick in the Scillies – Migration of the robin in other parts of Europe and the Atlantic islands – Sex and age differences in migration of birds – Sex hormones and migration – Singing in
contents winter quarters – Fighting on board ship – Redstart changing into robin – Swallows hibernating – Distances shifted by adult and juvenile robins.
9 age
119
The age to which birds can live in captivity and in the wild – The percentage of robins dying each year and the expectation of life as calculated from the ringing returns – Comparison with human life-tables – Number of young raised per pair per year.
10 food, feeding, and being fed upon
131
The moral Bunyan – Normal food – Beneficial to man – Feeding methods – Pellets – Desire for fat – Effect of hard winters – Robins make cats vomit – Enemies – Parasites – As food and medicine for man – Huge annual mortality – Control of population.
11 the significance of territory
142
Shape of robin’s territory – Early references to territory – Value in pair-formation – Discussion of optimum spacing, food territories, attacks on food competitors, size of territory and factors determining it, and equal spacing of birds which do not feed in their territories – The autumn territory of the robin – Sexual behaviour in autumn – Male behaviour by female robin – Autumn territory and migration.
12 adventures with a stuffed robin
158
Abnormal behaviour throws light on the normal – Manner of experiments – Robins attack a stuffed specimen – Individual differences in fierceness and way of attack – Waning of fierceness with repetition – Alleged cannibalism – Experiments with parts of specimens – Courtship of the specimen – Attacking empty air – The robin’s world.
13 recognition
170
Attacks on other species – Recognition a bad term – Lorenz’s views on signals – Robin’s attacking behaviour partially but not completely divisible into three parts each with its own signal – Lorenz’s views probably over-simplified – Attack on the mate – Attack only in the territory – Essential to consider the internal state – Bird behaviour complex.
david lack
14 tameness
181
Tameness of British, wildness of Continental, robin – How to tame a robin – The robin’s memory – Singing on seeing food – Striking human beings – Posturing at a man – Tameness in captive birds – Is recognition of its species inherited? – Birds fixated on human beings and on a celluloid ball – Fixation not irrevocable – Parallels with insects and mankind.
15 a digression upon instinct
191
Words as explanations and as gods – Popular misusage – Definitions should not be based on particular theories, or unobservables or non-existent entities – The observable characteristics of instinctive behaviour – Instincts not completely inherited – Difficulties in describing the appetitive and emotional behaviour of birds – Instinct in use before its definitions – Need for a new terminology.
16 forest robins
202
Distribution in woods, summer and winter – Origin of tameness – Date of laying – Clutch in May – Incubation – Weight of nestlings – Feeding visits – Losses of nestlings – Follows digging animals – Annual censuses – Average density – Territory – Woods and gardens compared.
epilogue
221
postscript 1: in david lack’s footsteps, by david harper
223
postscript 2: the life of ‘the life of the robin’, by peter lack
235
references and notes
249
index
277
Text Figures 1. Changes in Ownership
20
2. Threat Display
40
3. Average Clutch of Robin 4. Migration of Robin
89 111
5. Expectation of Life
126
6. Robin Territories at Dartington
144-5
7. Seasonal Changes in Song and Aggressive Behaviour
179
Introduction
What do you know about robins? Is it the same happy robin that eagerly greets you at your back door every time you nip out for a spot of gardening? Those questions and many more intrigued me as a kid. I used to stand staring out of my bedroom window at the antics of the robin in my garden. I remember being shocked when I first learnt about our humble robin’s violent alter ego. How could such a cute looking bird have such a foul temper? I was equally horrified to find out that they were not immortal either. Yes, the robin you so adoringly called yours could have been a succession of similar looking birds over the course of years. And Lord knows, the bird born in your garden shed during the summer could end up spending its Christmas soaking up the winter sun in Spain and not shivering in the snow perched on a spade. Indeed, over the last fifty years we have been learning a lot about the life and times of the robin. All of that knowledge stems from the work of one man: David Lack. Reading through the pages of this book it is clear to see that David was ahead of his time and a total innovator in the techniques that he used to study his chosen subject. He borrowed the ideas and practices that went before him to help shape the exhaustive research that he carried out over the space of four years. I love the fact that David was not an out-and-out scientist. He was a biology teacher, an amateur, who took it upon himself to study a bird that had always captivated him. This work is a shining xiii
david lindo example of how useful a position citizen science occupies within the world of academia. The robin has always had a role in the collective British psyche – so much so that in the 60’s it was anointed as the nation’s favourite bird. This announcement was made not as a result of public opinion; rather it was decreed in an office somewhere in London by a bunch of men in crusty suits. I had often wondered just how deep was Britain’s love affair with the robin, so in 2014 I launched a campaign to get the country to decide once and for all on the bird best placed to represent all that Britain stands for. The first round of voting focused on a long list of sixty iconic species. Aiming at birders and those interested in nature, I asked voters to plump for up to six species that they fancied. The robin won that round by a country mile. The second round featured the ten most popular species from the first round. The robin’s contenders included the blackbird, wren, blue tit, kingfisher, mute swan, puffin, red kite, barn owl and a rank outsider, the hen harrier. The timing of the bird vote was crucial as it ran for two months alongside the other national election that was going on at the time. The final day of voting occurred on May 7th 2016, the date of the General Election, and the date that thousands of children across the land also cast their vote for Britain’s National Bird. The electorate turned out in their droves and by midnight on May 7th nearly 250,000 people had had their say. Needless to say, the trusty robin won by a landslide, commanding over 30% of the vote. The thing that I learnt from the experience was that many people already thought that the robin was Britain’s National Bird. But many were as shocked as I was as a kid to learn of the highly territorial and pugnacious nature of their newly xiv
introduction appointed avian emblem. I think that David Lack would have been proud to know that the robin is still as popular as it was back in his day. His words in this book are just as informative and surprising now as they were then, and his language just as engaging and approachable. It has been an honour for me to contribute to this milestone in ornithology and I hope that David Lack will go on to inspire new generations of nature lovers, birders, ornithologists and, most importantly, robin lovers for years to come. David Lindo, The Urban Birder, Spring 2016
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