They are among the boldest of garden birds. But there’s a robin that appears to be so fearless that it has forged a close bond with a girl of seven. The bird waits for Lauren Newton to come home from class every day – and has done for the last six months. Then it flies straight to her hand as she walks into the garden with a fist-full of birdfood. Lauren who lives in Timperley, near Altrincham, Cheshire, said: “He seems to like me more than anyone else. When you go to school, when you walk, he follows a little bit. When you come back from school he’s waiting on the garden fence.”
Her mother Helen, 41, a senior hospital worker, said the robin becomes jealous when Lauren feeds a dormouse that also comes into the garden. She added: “It’s so friendly it has almost become part of the family. We think it has a nest in our garden and has found a mate.
The boldness of the robin, dubbed the ‘gardeners’ friend’, has stunned Lauren’s family, who live in Timperley, near Altrincham, Greater Manchester. Lauren, a pupil at Cloverleaf Primary School in Timperley, said: “My dad bought some mealworms and he was offering them to the robin. “He put his hand up and then it flew on his hand and then he lifted his hand up and the robin sat on his hand. Then I got to do it. It didn’t tickle too much. It was fun and it seems to like me more than anyone else. He’s my friend and my friends at school know about him and are amazed at what the robin does.”
Her mother Helen added: “The robin’s always there but I have to say even we’re surprised at the friendship it has developed with Lauren. He’s so friendly he has almost become part of the family. We think it has a nest up in a tree in our garden and has found a mate, a female, so chicks could be on the way. Lauren loves animals and also feeds a dormouse that comes into the garden but the robin gets jealous when he sees this.
“Lauren’s dad is a keen bird watcher and I think he has instilled a love of animals in Lauren.”
Bird experts say robins are relatively unafraid of people and like to come close when anyone is digging soil to look out for earthworms and other food freshly turned up. A spokesman for the RSPB said: “It’s very impressive that Lauren knows so much about birds and we encourage children to learn about wildlife. Robins are one of the more approachable of the garden birds. They’re quite comfortable with human company.”
Daily Mail
Vocabulary
bold – merész, bátor
to forge – kovácsol
birdfood – madáreledel
dormouse – mogyorós pele
mealworm – házi lisztbogár
to tickle – csiklandoz
plump – gömbölyded
bill – csőr
pale – havány, fakó
to skulk – lapul, megbújik
sparrow – fecske
Robin description
The National Bird and a common favourite, the Robin is easily recognised by most people. 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, though even this is not always apparent. They have a brown bill and legs. The juvenile Robin has speckled buff-brown upper parts and underparts.
In the winter, resident birds are joined by immigrants from Scandinavia and the continental Europe; these Robins are paler than ours, have a duller red breast. The immigrants are also generally less tame because they skulk in woodlands, only British Robins are a tame garden bird. Robins are territorial all year round; during the spring and summer this territoriality is for breeding, but at other times individual robins hold territories for feeding. Robins will defend their territories to the death, and so in the poem “Who killed Cock Robin?”, another Robin rather than a sparrow would be more likely:
Who killed Cock Robin?
I said the Sparrow,
With my bow and arrow,
And I killed Cock Robin.
www.garden-birds.co.uk
