I've got to admit I've never seen a Robin's courtship display before but I witnessed this one while I was in the hide in Forest Farm hoping to see the Little Bunting. It was an extraordinary display and what struck me was that many of the photographers down there were so focused on the Little Bunting that they ignored the Robin, which to my mind was putting on a much better show. OK, I understand the attraction of something unusual but the Bunting was only feeding and preening and this was something else!.
I'm guessing that the Robins were quite excited about the dense thicket that had suddenly appeared on their patch. Little did they know that the pile of wood was there to be woven into a fence around a freshly created bog garden and that some volunteers were twiddling their thumbs waiting for the blessed bunting to go before dismantling their future home.
On a tree to the left of the hide and about 25' from me I saw a Treecreeper, only record shots I'm afraid but another interesting sighting on the trip!
what an interesting day you had John watching the robins displaying and the gorgeous little Treecreeper, looks fantastic habitat for them; as you say when most people are focused on one particular bird things can be just as exciting looking the opposite way lol really lovely set of photos.
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Regards, Hazel
Nice series John.
Lovely set of photos. Looks to me like the newly introduced 'thicket' might be between two territories. That looks rather like a territorial dispute to me, plenty of displaying and trying to get a higher perch. Thanks for posting the set. TC isn't bad either!
Unicum arbustum haud alit duos erithacos
(One bush does not shelter two Robins)
Zenodotus (3rd Century B.C.)
Nice set of shots, John. I've seen Robin's fighting and chasing each other, but never displaying. Nice spot with the Treecreeper as well.
Paul
My bird photos HERE
Lovely pictures of the robins displaying to each other, as has been said, I have seen them chase each other but not display.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Thanks MC, Paul and Catlady. MC I did wonder whether it was a territorial dispute at first but there was no obvious aggression and only one bird was displaying; the other, that I took to be the female, was passive just looking on in bemusement. There was no attempt to chase it off by the displaying bird and as you can see in the second photo they were only a few inches apart. Any time I've seen them in territorial disputes there has been no display just a headlong attack, usually over in seconds.
If the second Robin wasn't responding then you could well be correct. I've seen one or two examples of courtship behaviour over the past few years and a couple of them became rather frantic. There was occasionally a third Robin from time to time, which confused matters. The only two that didn't take too long to pair up were BR and Mrs BR back in January 2013. Once they had paired up they were inseparable and very territorial. It sounds like the passive Robin was the female, as you say. She was probably waiting for the penny to drop and for the male to realise that she wasn't a rival, but a potential mate. It can take a while!
Hope you can visit there again and maybe give us an update on them, especially if they have young.
Thanks MC! I will be going back there in the future, just wish I'd got it on video!