The Robin

No other bird is quite so ever-present and familiar, so embedded in our culture, as the robin. With more than six million breeding pairs, the robin is one of Britain's most common birds. It seems to live its life alongside us, in every month and season of the year. But how much do we really know about this bird? Stephen Moss records a year of observing the robin both close to home and in the field to shed light on the hidden life of this apparently familiar bird. We follow its life cycle from the time it enters the world as an egg, through its time as a nestling and juvenile, to the adult bird; via courtship, song, breeding, feeding, migration and ultimately, death. At the same time we trace the robin's relationship with us and ask: how did this particular bird find its way so deeply and permanently into our nation's heart and its social and cultural history? It's a story that tells us as much about ourselves as it does about the robin itself.