bellicose robins

[meteor]

I am sitting sipping a cup of coffee and watching through my kitchen window two robins knocking seven bells out of each other over the patch of ground I've just cleared and dug. I never realised that those angelic looking little birds depicted on thousands of cards( I won't say the C word yet,too early) could be so vicious.

[Nicos]

Yup- males together are exceptionally territorial!

[Jay22]

Unfortunately they are very territorial...even fighting to the death!

[cariann88]

Unfortunately they are very territorial...even fighting to the death!

Poor little robins!

[meteor]

I'm afraid this did not end well at all, they slogged it out intermittently all afternoon , lots of juicy worms as I continued to clear and dig until about 4 o'clock when they were so engrossed in each other that they failed to notice or hear the blackbirds warning cries. A flash, a burst of feathers and a sparrowhawk made off with one, the resident robin survived, he always looks at little ragged and worse for wear, even more so now.

[Greenleaves]

Ironically I witnessed something very similar today, sat in the garden when the silence was broken by a clattering in the walnut tree, I just thought it was an amorous pigeon, suddenly out shot a sparrow followed by a hawk....no more sparrow

[Aberdeenplotter]

I'd heard that robins would fight to the death in territorial disputes but had never seen any signs of that until last year when we had a couple in our back garden. By the time we saw them, one was already dead but the other was still pecking the hell out of it and muscling it about. Vicious little sods and as you say, angelic looking.

[Jay22]

Remember watching a documentary about them years ago...it really is a jungle out there for them! Very sad.