The U.K., unlike many other nations, does not have a national bird. As part of a campaign to resolve this, ornithologist David Lindo ran a poll whereby people could vote from a shortlist to determine which feathered friend most typified Britain. The outcome was the robin. Given the ubiquity of the red breasted bird adorning many Christmas cards, the selection was perhaps unsurprising.
Talking with the BBC ahead of the close of the poll, and predicting victory for the robin, Lindo reminded voters that the robin, although found in many British gardens during the winter, is arguably not a “true” British bird: “People consider the robin as a British bird – but [like] a lot of our native birds… some of the population move south to Iberia for the winter and are replaced by immigrants from the continent.”
With the poll outcome, some 240,000 people voted. Of these, some 34 percent selected the robin as the best candidate for the national bird. Coming a distant second was the barn owl, with 12 percent; and close behind, at number three and with 11 percent, was the blackbird, known for its beautiful song.
At number four was the wren and taking fifth spot was the red kite. At sixth was the kingfisher; whereas seventh and eighth spot were taken by mute swan and the blue tit. Finishing off the top 10 came the hen harrier and the puffin.
With the selection of the robin, an opinion piece in The Independent points out that the bird is not quite as ‘cute’ as it is often portrayed; noting that robins compete very extensively both for territory and females often fight very aggressively.
Discussing the outcome, Lindo told The Guardian: “If the truth be known it would be great if something else had won, like a blackbird, but I’m very happy still that a robin has been confirmed as Britain’s national bird. I think it’s good and I think it’s a bird that we can be proud of and hoist up on our shoulders now.”
As a comparator to the diminutive robin, the U.S. has the American bald eagle as its national bird; India has the vibrant peacock; Australia has the flightless emu; and France has, erm, the cockerel.
The next stage of Lindo’s campaign is to have the British government formally adopt robin as the national bird.
