It is 12.5–14.0 cm (4.9–5.5 in) in length; the male and female are identical in plumage, with an orange-toned red breast and face lined with grey, brown upper-parts and a whitish belly.

The Dutch roodborstje, French rouge-gorge, Swedish rödhake, German Rotkehlchen, Italian pettirosso, Spanish petirrojo and Portuguese pisco-de-peito-ruivo all refer to the distinctively coloured front.

[3] A 2010 phylogenetic analysis placed Erithacus in the subfamily Erithacinae, which otherwise contained only African species, but its exact position with respect to the other genera was not resolved.

[15] More detailed analysis has shown it to be the sole European member of an otherwise entirely tropical African subfamily Cossyphinae, in which it is in a basal position.

The robin found in the British Isles and much of western Europe, Erithacus rubecula melophilus, occurs as a vagrant in adjacent regions.

In the southeast of its range, E. r. valens of the Crimean Peninsula, E. r. caucasicus of the Caucasus and northern Transcaucasia, and E. r. hyrcanus southeastwards into Iran are generally accepted as significantly distinct.

[21][22] Cytochrome b sequence data and vocalisations[23] indicate that the Gran Canaria/Tenerife robins are indeed very distinct and probably derived from colonisation by mainland birds some 2 million years ago.

[a] Christian Dietzen, Hans-Hinrich Witt and Michael Wink published in 2003 in Avian Science a study called "The phylogeographic differentiation of the European robin Erithacus rubecula on the Canary Islands revealed by mitochondrial DNA sequence data and morphometrics: evidence for a new robin taxon on Gran Canaria?".

[19] Finally, the robins which can be found in Fuerteventura are the European ones, which is not surprising as the species does not breed either in this island or in the nearby Lanzarote; they are wintering birds or just passing through during their long migration between Africa and Europe.

This American species was incorrectly shown "feathering its nest" in London in the film Mary Poppins,[25] but it only occurs in the UK as a very rare vagrant.

Another group of Old World flycatchers, this time from Africa and Asia, is the genus Copsychus; its members are known as magpie-robins, one of which, the Oriental magpie robin (C. saularis), is the national bird of Bangladesh.

[28] The robin occurs in Eurasia east to Western Siberia, south to Algeria and on the Atlantic islands as far west as the Central Group of the Azores and Madeira.

[1] Irish and British robins are largely resident but a small minority, usually female, migrate to southern Europe during winter, a few as far as Spain.

These migrants can be recognised by the greyer tone of the upper parts of their bodies and duller orange breast.

There was a similar outcome in North America, as birds failed to become established after being released in Long Island, New York in 1852, Oregon in 1889–1892, and the Saanich Peninsula in British Columbia in 1908–1910.

[18] Well known to British and Irish gardeners, it is relatively unafraid of people and drawn to human activities involving the digging of soil, in order to look out for earthworms and other food freshly turned up.

The British and Irish considered robins to be a gardener's friend and would never harm them, due also to the traditional association of the red colouring of their breasts with the blood of Christ.

In autumn and winter, robins will supplement their usual diet of terrestrial invertebrates, such as spiders, worms and insects, with berries, fruit and seeds.

As well as the usual crevices, or sheltered banks, other objects include pieces of machinery, barbecues, bicycle handlebars, bristles on upturned brooms, discarded kettles, watering cans, flower pots and hats.

After two to three months out of the nest, the juvenile bird grows some orange feathers under its chin, and over a similar period this patch gradually extends to complete the adult appearance of an entirely red-orange breast.

[28] The female robin moves a short distance from the summer nesting territory to a nearby area that is more suitable for winter feeding.

The physical mechanism of the robin's magnetic sense involves quantum entanglement of electron spins in cryptochrome in the bird's eyes.

Legend has it that when Jesus was dying on the cross, the robin, then simply brown in colour, flew to his side and sang into his ear in order to comfort him in his pain.

[citation needed] A small bird is an unusual choice, although it is thought to symbolise agility in darting around the field.