European robin
Erithacus rubecula
A small woodland songbird with an orange face and breast. Confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident and breeder on the 2024 national bird checklist.
Overview
What is European robin
The European robin (Erithacus rubecula) is a small Old World flycatcher (family Muscicapidae) confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident. The 2024 annotated checklist of the birds of Georgia codes it YR-R: a breeder present throughout the year. Seasonality is classed as high-quality (code A). Occurrence quality is high (H), with photographs. The usual Georgian name is გულწითელა. Adults are about 14 cm long at species level, olive-brown above with an orange face and breast. It is not a threat to people. IUCN lists the species as Least Concern. The 2024 checklist assigns the same category nationally.
Last updated
Gallery
European robin in photos
Photo: Charles J. Sharp
Stratfield Brake, Oxfordshire ·
Photo: Zeynel Cebeci
Balcalı, Sarıçam, Adana ·
Photo: Charles J. Sharp
Great Dixter, Sussex ·
Photo: Francis C. Franklin
Shevington Moor, Lancashire ·
Photo: Zeynel Cebeci
Balcalı, Sarıçam, Adana ·
Photo: Zeynel Cebeci
Balcalı, Sarıçam, Adana ·
Identification
How to identify European robin
A sparrow-sized songbird with an orange face and breast, olive-brown back, and a pale belly. The sexes look alike in the field. Juveniles lack the orange breast. In Georgia it is a year-round resident on the 2024 checklist.
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Length about 14 cm and wingspan about 20–22 cm at species level. Mass is often about 14–21 g. The body is rounded, the bill fine and dark, the legs brownish. It has no large white wing patch and no long orange tail.
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Adults have a continuous orange-rufous forehead, cheeks, throat, and breast. The back is olive-brown. A bluish-grey band often borders the breast; the belly is pale, whitest in the centre. The sexes are not separable in the field. Juveniles are brown and buff with dense pale spotting and no orange face and breast; the orange appears after the first moult.
- 03
Common nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos) is a breeding migrant (BB; M) on the 2024 Georgian checklist: larger, plain brown, without an orange face. Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica) is a breeding migrant; adult males have a blue throat. Common redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) and black redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros) show an orange tail; breeding male redstarts have a dark face, not a full orange face. White-throated robin (Irania gutturalis) is coded ND (status not defined) on that list. In this atlas რუხი გულწითელა is another name for yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella), a yellow bunting, not this species. This atlas has a page for yellowhammer; it has a page for nightingale. It does not yet have separate pages for bluethroat or redstarts.
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It is not a threat to people. Leave it alone. A small rounded bird with an orange face and breast in Georgian woodland or a garden is this species; a spotted brown youngster is the same species without the orange.
Biology
Habitat, diet, behavior, and conservation
Habitat and range
In Georgia look for it in woodland understorey, forest edge, parks, gardens, and scrub where low cover meets small patches of bare ground. The 2024 checklist confirms country-level residency but does not publish a regional gazetteer. Do not assume it occurs evenly across Georgia, including treeless high plateaus or open dry steppe without cover. Named record on this page: Batumi Botanical Garden, Adjara, 24 June 2016 (photograph by Boris Georgi, georgia.birding.day). The atlas map is empty until named administrative units are compiled from sources that actually name them. Species-level habitat is shady woodland, edge, gardens, and parks. A separate national elevation band for Georgia is not published here.
Diet
There is no separate Georgian diet study on this page. Across the range it takes mainly ground invertebrates: earthworms, beetles, ants, and other insects; berries and seeds are added in winter. It often drops from a low perch onto prey or hops and pauses on the ground. That is species-level feeding, not a measured Georgian menu.
Behavior
It is active by day. The song is short, high, silvery phrases with pauses, given from a bush or a low branch. Across the range it sings for much of the year except during the midsummer moult; both sexes are territorial. Full song is most expected in Georgia in the breeding season, but the 2024 checklist treats the species as a year-round resident, so the bird can appear in winter too. Northern and eastern populations move south in winter; western birds are often resident. Do not read Georgia as a pure passage point on that list. The nest is low: a bank, roots, cavity, or similar crevice. Species-level clutches are often about 4–6 eggs, with incubation of about 13 days. Those figures are from the wider range, not a Georgian nest sample. The checklist treats the species as a breeder in Georgia. In Britain it often approaches people; on the continent, including the Caucasus, it is often more wary.
Conservation
BirdLife International assesses Erithacus rubecula as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. The European population is large. BirdLife’s 2021 European Red List of Birds estimates 48,900–490,000 breeding pairs in Georgia (2013–2017, partial method; trend unknown). That is a wide range, not a precise census; the source given is EBBA Georgia (SABUKO, Ilia State University, PSOVI). EUNIS reports Least Concern in Europe and notes EU Birds Directive coverage; that instrument does not apply in Georgia. It is not on Georgia’s 2014 Red List (Government Resolution No. 190). The 2024 Georgian bird checklist assigns global and national Red List category LC. A Georgia-specific population trend is not quantified on this page. Do not catch or keep wild birds.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Short answers to the most important questions about European robin.
Yes. The 2024 annotated checklist of the birds of Georgia lists it as a confirmed year-round resident (breeder, present throughout the year).
In woodland understorey, forest edge, parks, gardens, and scrub. A named photograph on this page is from Batumi Botanical Garden, 24 June 2016. This page does not colour a regional map. Occurrence is confirmed at country level, not by region.
Adults have an orange face and breast, an olive-brown back, and a pale belly. The sexes look alike. Juveniles are spotted brown without an orange breast. Nightingales lack the orange face; redstarts show an orange tail.
About 14 cm long at species level, with a wingspan of about 20–22 cm and mass often about 14–21 g. A separate measured series from Georgia is not given on this page.
Ground invertebrates (earthworms, insects) and, seasonally, berries or seeds. Diet has not been studied separately in Georgia on this page.
All year, according to the 2024 checklist (YR-R). Song is strongest in the breeding season, but the bird can appear in woodland and gardens in any month.
Yes. Year-round resident on the 2024 checklist means it is accepted as a breeder and remains through the year.
It is harmless. It is globally Least Concern and is not on Georgia’s 2014 Red List. The 2024 checklist also codes it LC nationally. Do not catch wild birds.
- Budagashvili & Javakhishvili 2024 — The birds of Georgia (Sandgrouse 46)
- SABUKO — Bird checklist
- BirdLife DataZone — European Robin
- BirdLife International 2021 — IUCN Red List account for Erithacus rubecula
- BirdLife International 2021 — European Red List of Birds (Erithacus rubecula)
- EUNIS — Erithacus rubecula
- IOC World Bird List
- Avibase — Georgia bird checklist
- საქართველოს მთავრობის დადგენილება №190 (2014) — წითელი ნუსხა
- NPLG Wiki Dictionaries — გულწითელა
- Kirwan, Collar & Goodman 2025 — Birds of the World (Erithacus rubecula)
- Natural History Museum — Robin (Erithacus rubecula)
- RSPB — Robin
- Cornell Lab — European Robin life history
- georgia.birding.day — Erithacus rubecula, Batumi Botanical Garden
- Wikimedia Commons — singing, Oxfordshire (Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — juvenile, Sussex (Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — cocked head (Francis C. Franklin, CC BY-SA 3.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — Adana, 24 Dec 2016 (Zeynel Cebeci, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — Adana, 10 Dec 2016 (Zeynel Cebeci, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — Adana, 27 Dec 2016 (Zeynel Cebeci, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — XC473253 song (Marie-Lan Taÿ Pamart, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Species profiles are compiled from peer-reviewed literature and established biodiversity databases, and are reviewed as new taxonomic and conservation data become available.
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