North American and European robins share a holiday legend

Early European settlers named the American robin for the robin of Europe. Our robin is really a thrush. Large numbers of them winter in Texas. Photo Credit: Kathy Adams Clark. Restricted use. Early European settlers named the American robin for the robin of Europe. Our robin is really a thrush. Large numbers of them winter in Texas. Photo Credit: Kathy Adams Clark. Restricted use. Photo: Kathy Adams Clark Photo: Kathy Adams Clark Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close North American and European robins share a holiday legend 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

A European legend has it that on the night Jesus was born in a cold stable, a robin heard Mary's plea to keep the dying embers of a fire from burning out.

So the robin flew in and vigorously fanned the embers with its wings until the fire glowed red and warm. The bird continued fanning the fire, then picked up twigs with its beak to throw into the fire to keep the flames glowing. But the flames singed the robin's beautiful white breast, turning it red.

With such a touching story ingrained in their minds, European settlers to North America understandably gave the name robin to the red-breasted songbird they saw in the New World. We now call it the American robin.

The American and European robins have similarities as well as differences. Both have red breasts, but the American robin's red breast extends to its belly, while the European robin's red breast is limited to a breast patch and is brighter and more of an orange shade than the brick-red color on American robins.

Both birds inhabit neighborhood gardens, city parks and forested areas. They both dine on insects, earthworms, grubs, fruits and berries. In both robins, the sexes look alike except that the female American robin has a lighter shade of red on its underside than does the male.

Differences between the two robins include the taxonomic fact that the American robin is a member of the Turdidae or thrush family that includes the wood thrush and even the Eastern bluebird. Some scientists wanted to rename the American robin the American thrush; I'm glad the idea was scorched.

The European robin is actually a flycatcher thrush in the same Muscicapidae family as nightingales and Old World chats.

The American robin is also much larger - about the size of blue jays - while European robins are about the size of house sparrows.

I find their songs strikingly different. The European robin has a sweet, tuneful, high-pitched warbling melody, rather mournful in winter, similar to twilddle-ooo-twiddle-eeede-twiddle

But the American robin sings a raspy-sounding, robust whistling melody that sounds like cheerily, cheer-up, cheer-up, cheerily, cheer-up and is sung zealously in the spring. In winter, it utters a sharp kuk-kuk-kuk call.

In most of Texas, American robins are harbingers of winter as Northern populations migrate here to swell the small population of year-round robins.

To contact Lone Star College professor Gary Clark or photographer Kathy Adams Clark, visit their website at www .texasbirder.net.