Erithacus rubecula
The European robin, known simply as the robin or robin redbreast in the British Isles, is a small insectivorous passerine bird belonging to the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. It is found across Europe, as far east as Western Siberia, and as far south as North Africa. It is sedentary in the west and south of its range, and migratory in the north and east of its range where winters are harsher.

Francis C. Franklin · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Also called
- European robinPBDB
- Sits inside
- ErithacusPBDB
- Diet
- insectivorePBDB, for Muscicapidae
- Life habit
- volantPBDB, for Muscicapidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Muscicapidae
- Mass
- 2.4 gWikidata
Time the record covers
At least 117 thousand years on record.
The record covers at least 129 ka to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 774 ka to 0 Mya.
20 occurrences of Erithacus rubecula on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
20 occurrences- Pleistocene80%
- Holocene20%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Erithacus rubecula and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Erithacus rubecula and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
235 taxa- Turdus14 sites
- Corvus monedula11 sites
- Pyrrhocorax graculus11 sites
- Coccothraustes coccothraustes9 sites
- Tyto alba9 sites
- Chloris chloris8 sites
- Sturnus8 sites
- Emberiza7 sites
- Falco tinnunculus7 sites
- Fringilla7 sites
- Columba livia6 sites
- Columba palumbus6 sites
- Coturnix coturnix6 sites
- Falco eleonorae6 sites
- Garrulus glandarius6 sites
- Pyrrhocorax6 sites
- Scolopax rusticola6 sites
- Turdus viscivorus6 sites
- Accipiter gentilis5 sites
- Athene cretensis5 sites
- Columba5 sites
- Columba oenas5 sites
- Otus scops5 sites
- Porzana porzana5 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 19 sites for Erithacus rubecula, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
7 references- Upper Pleistocene and Holocene fossil avifauna from Moleta cave (Mallorca, Balearic Islands)6
- The Quaternary avifauna of Crete, Greece5
- Biostratigraphy of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals in Corsica and the role of man in the Holocene faunal turnover3
- Avian fossil assemblages at the onset of the LGM in the eastern Alps: A palaecological contribution from the Rio Secco Cave (Italy)2
- A catalogue of British Pleistocene birds identified by Colin JO Harrison and stored in the Natural History Museum, London, (Department of Palaeontology)2
- Late Pleistocene fossil birds from Buso Doppio del Broion Cave (North-Eastern Italy): implications for palaeoecology, palaeoenvironment and palaeoclimate1
- The Middle Pleistocene avifauna of Spinagallo Cave (Sicily, Italy): preliminary report1
Each of the 20 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content2
Picture of Erithacus rubecula
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Francis C. Franklin
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Licence
- CC Attribution
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itErithacus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1758)