robin
Pluralrobins
- 1Any of about 100 species of passerine birds in the families Muscicapidae, Turdidae, and Petroicidae (formerly Eopsaltriidae), typically with a red breast.
Birdwatchers in eastern Australia can see several kinds of robin in a single morning.
Across Africa, Asia, and Australasia, robins come in many patterns, and not every one of them has a red breast.
Note
This group is held together by an English name, not by one family: its members sit in three separate families, so two birds called robins need not be close kin. The word is short for robin redbreast, and the red breast is typical rather than universal. On its own, robin is ambiguous; a qualifier, as in European robin or American robin, says which bird is meant.
- 2The American robin, Turdus migratorius, a red-breasted songbird of North America.
Robins nested in the maple outside our kitchen window in Ohio.
A robin hopped across the freshly mowed lawn, tilting its head to listen for worms.
Note
A different bird from the European robin, not a variety of it: the scientific names put the two in separate genera, Turdus and Erithacus, and what they share is the red breast. In North America the bare word robin means this bird.
- 3The European robin, Erithacus rubecula, a red-breasted songbird of Europe.
In a London park, a robin followed the gardener along the flower bed, waiting for worms.
The Christmas card from our friends in Yorkshire showed a plump robin on a snowy branch.
Note
The bird wears a person's name: robin is short for robin redbreast, and Middle English robynet came from Robynett, a pet form of the name Robyn. Robin now covers about a hundred mostly red-breasted species in several families of songbirds, but in Europe the bare word means this one.
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