The robin is poised to become Britain's national bird

Blackleaf

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The Christmassy robin redbreast is poised to become Britain's national bird.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is running an online poll in which members of the public can vote which birds, from a list of 60 candidates, they want as Britain's national bird.

The red-breasted European robin (Erithacus rubecula), commonly seen in gardens, parks and woodland, is ahead of the barn owl, kingfisher and blue t it in the final weeks of voting on a shortlist for the title.

Robin flies to top of poll on Britain's 'national bird'

The robin is poised to be named Britain’s “national bird” as part of a campaign run by David Lindo, a bird watcher and television presenter


The poll, backed by the RSPB, invites members of the public to vote for their favourite bird from a list of 60 candidates Photo: Alamy

By Edward Malnick
02 Nov 2014
The Telegraph
64 Comments

It is the perennial favourite of gardeners and plays a starring role on our Christmas cards, and now the robin is poised to be named Britain’s “national bird”.

The red-breasted bird, commonly seen in gardens, parks and woodland, is ahead of the barn owl, kingfisher and blue t it in the final weeks of voting on a shortlist for the title.

The poll, backed by the RSPB, invites members of the public to vote for their favourite bird from a list of 60 candidates.

The top six from the list will emerge when voting closes at the end of this month. A second round of voting next year will then decide the overall winner.

The robin is currently the frontrunner, with around 40 per cent of the vote.



It is one of five birds commonly seen in all parts of the UK which make up the list.

The puffin crept into the top six on Friday. The bird, which is unmistakable as a result of its black and white colouring and brightly-coloured bill, has knocked the common mute swan out of sixth place.

David Lindo, a bird watcher and television presenter who is running the Vote for a National Bird Campaign, said the puffin was popular because it has “such a charismatic look which most people would recognise”.

However, he added that the ultimate winner of the poll is more likely to be a garden bird, which many more people would have seen around Britain.

Grahame Madge, a spokesman for the RSPB, said: “The fact that we don’t have a national bird is something of an omission and all success to David in trying to fill that gap.”

He added: “It is probably no surprise that the robin is the top of the list as it frequently comes in as one of our favourite birds.”

To see the 60 candidates and vote in the poll visit www.votenationalbird.com



It looks like the robin is to win the contest to be Britain's national bird


Robin flies to top of poll on Britain's 'national bird' - Telegraph
 
EagleSmack

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Robins in North America are larger



A larger and prouder bird. The briddish robin is frail and weak.
 
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Ludlow

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EagleSmack said:
Robins in North America are larger



A larger and prouder bird. The briddish robin is frail and weak.
Click to expand...
Lots of those out in the Ozarks. Along with cardinals, blue jays, blue birds and then at certain seasons some little yellow birds would come around in bunches and I don't know what kind of bird they were. Lots of hummingbirds too. In the fall hundreds of geese would fly over head and I thought that was pretty cool.
 
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Sal

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the robin is a cool choice...no matter how many times I see a robin I always make note of it, don't know why, it's just habit
 
Blackleaf

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EagleSmack said:
Robins in North America are larger
Click to expand...

So? Like many North American creatures, they don't look quite as nice as their European counterparts. The European robin is a much nicer bird and is a symbol of Christmas, especially in Britain, appearing on Christmas cards. It is a common bird seen in British gardens and is a species much loved by this nation of animal lovers.

With the robin comfortably winning the competition to become Britain's national bird, Harry Wallop thinks one species should never represent Britain (no, not the robin)......

This is the one bird that must never represent Britain

Ten candidates are on the shortlist to become our national bird; but one imposter is fast making a bid


Robin: The favourite to be crowned Britain's national bird Photo: Alamy



By Harry Wallop
17 Mar 2015
The Telegraph
220 Comments

There are two national votes on May 7, both involving controversial, scheming and sometimes preening individuals. One is the general election and the other is a poll to find a national bird of Britain. There is little doubt which Britons will enjoy participating in more.

• #birdvote: Meet the top ten vying to represent Britain

Britain has never had a national bird, but it has a deep-rooted love of the creatures. With 1.1 million on its books, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has more paid-up members than all of the political parties put together. Birds are not just part of the English language, they are the punctuation marks that measure the passing of time: the first cuckoo of spring, swallow of summer or robin atop a snowy garden fence. Tweet of the Day preceding the Today programme has almost become as much part of Radio 4 as the pips.


Blackbird

David Goode, the author of Nature in Towns and Cities, says: “A love of birds is a very definite British thing. When the great Victorian natural history societies of Manchester or Birmingham organised trips to, say, the Peak District or North Wales, they would hire special trains so great was the demand.”

But for all our avian affection, we do not have a national bird. Sweden has the blackbird, Mongolia has the saker falcon, but Britain has no official feathered friend. The vote to rectify this has been proposed by David Lindo, a keen birdwatcher and a passionate believer in birds as a force for good. So far it is an unofficial vote, but he says: “We’re talking to government.”

He drew up a longlist of 60 birds last year. Following hundreds of thousands of online votes, it has been whittled down to 10: barn owl, blackbird, blue t it, hen harrier, kingfisher, mute swan, puffin, red kite, robin and wren.


Barn Owl


Founded in 1889, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has more members than all the UK's political parties put together and is the largest wildlife conservation charity in Europe

The list manages to encompass both common garden birds – there are an estimated 10 to 15 million blackbirds in Britain, and about half as many robins – and exceedingly rare hen harriers. Last year, a mere four nestswere found and there are fears that illegal hunting is pushing them to extinction.

Many national birds are chosen to highlight their plight. The Philippine eagle was declared its country’s national bird in the 1990s in a bid to reverse a critical decline. For similar reasons Chris Packham, the BBC wildlife presenter, is one of many desperate for the hen harrier to be chosen in Britain’s poll.

But others believe a national bird should be more than just a sympathy case; it should embody the national spirit. Ed Hutchings, a bird writer, thinks that the wren is the perfect candidate. “They sum up the British character. They are small but fearless and punch well above their weight, which we used to do. They are so full of character. They sing proudly from a perch, they don’t hide away. And you see them all over Britain in gardens and up mountainsides, in the depths of winter you can still hear their rat-a-tat-tat machine gun sound.”


The Wren is Britain's most common bird. There are thought to be around 8.5 million breeding territories in the UK

However he – like most – believes that the robin will “romp home” in the vote. “It’s invaded our national psyche, and since the 19th century it's been on Christmas cards and stamps. Plus, it’s everywhere. On the continent, robins are shy woodland birds, but here they will perch on the end of your garden spade.” Despite their popularity, there are some who dislike their aggressive nature. “It is quite a violent bird,” says Mr Lindo.

It is not entirely clear that Britain needs a national bird. Having a national anything, be it a flower, dish, musical instrument, shoe or animal is something that tends to be the preserve of newer countries, without a deep well of shared experiences. Mexico has a national dog, mammal, bird and even arthropod, which seems to be pushing it. (It’s a grasshopper, by the way).

Many other countries unimaginatively follow America’s lead and plump for an eagle; the African Fish Eagle manages to spread itself across four different countries. It is worth noting that Benjamin Franklin thought the choice of a bald eagle was a poor one for America’s presidential seal. “He is a bird of bad moral character. He does not get his living honestly,” he wrote to his daughter. “The turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and a true original native of America.”

Mr Lindo says it’s time we caught up: “We invented bird watching, but we don’t have a national bird. It would be great to have another national emblem we could hoist onto our shoulders and say: “This is us.”

According to legend, if all the ravens leave the Tower of London the kingdom will fall. So Historic Royal Palaces tweeted this message:



HistoricRoyalPalaces Follow
✔ @HRP_palaces

Britain's national bird? It has to be the raven, otherwise the kingdom will fall! #voteraven #birdvote @bird_vote

11:21 AM - 16 Mar 2015

80 Retweets 83 favorites


It’s true that the need for insignia, around which one can rally, has always been important in times of strife. This explains why the great aristocratic families had red lions, white harts and blue boars aplenty, and the royal family have a lion and a unicorn. Indeed, the most enduring national symbols in Britain are royal ones. Which makes it strange that the raven does not make an appearance in the shortlist. Which other animal – winged or otherwise – is so woven into our history that tourists come to visit them?

There are other strange omissions from the final 10. Mr Lindo himself said he was surprised by the absence of once common birds: the house sparrow, the nightingale, starlings, cuckoos and turtle doves. “Sadly, they are all becoming very rare. In the 1950s you would hear these all the time. Maybe it’s a case of out of sound, out of mind.”


Puffin: a much-loved sight around the British coastline

Possibly the most glaring omission is the skylark, a bird whose trills used to be heard above almost every farm in Britain. They were once much a part of the countryside – or certainly our vision of a bucolic Britain – as shire horses, yeomen and old maids hiking to Holy Communion through the mists of an autumn morning.

Of all the sounds of Britain to conjure up the rolling hills and hedgerows of Constable, it is Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending – a piece of classical music frequently voted as this country’s favourite. The herald of the dawn, certainly. But also an elegy to a Britain gone before.

There is one bird, however, that failed to make it into the top 10 despite making a claim to be the most successful immigrant in modern Britain: the ring-necked parakeet. Various rumours abound as to how it became this loud, flashy, north-Indian bird invaded Britain – including one that it escaped from the set of the African Queen, much of which was filmed in Isleworth. In only 50 years their numbers have gone from zero to more than 30,000.

“The problem with them is that they very well may be pushing out native species – some woodpeckers and jackdaws – because they use the same nest holes,” says Mr Goode.


Noisy ring-necked parakeets are now a fairly common sight in Britain, especially in the London area

Mr Lindo is even less of a fan. “I see them as long-tailed, green flying rats.” But even he admits they do something that few other birds can do: attract a new crowd to birdwatching. “My local haunt is Wormwood Scrubs in north London. And when the parakeets roost it’s a spectacular site; people gather to watch.”

And that is another similarity between the two elections on May 7: whatever the result, there is sure to be an army of voters unhappy not just with the result, but with the list of candidates too.



#birdvote: This is the one bird that must never represent Britain - Telegraph
 
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Blackleaf

Blackleaf

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Now that the raven has been mentioned, I think it should be the raven.
 
EagleSmack

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Blackleaf said:
So? Like many North American creatures, they don't look quite as nice as their European counterparts. The European robin is a much nicer bird and is a symbol of Christmas, especially in Britain, appearing on Christmas cards. It is a common bird seen in British gardens and is a species much loved by this nation of animal lovers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ear...e-bird-that-must-never-represent-Britain.html
Click to expand...

North American wildlife puts European wildlife to shame.
 
55Mercury

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this is the real robin, the one our north american robin was named after, which isn't a real robin, but a thrush.
 
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