European Robin's Unprecedented Arrival in Montreal Stuns Birdwatchers
In the midst of a bitterly cold Montreal winter, an unexpected visitor has captivated the attention of bird enthusiasts across North America. A European robin, a species native to western Europe, has taken up residence in a quiet Montreal neighbourhood, marking the first recorded sighting of this bird in Canada and only the fifth or sixth ever documented in North America.
A Rare and Celebrated Vagrant
The bird, first spotted in early January, has become a local celebrity, drawing hundreds of birdwatchers to the area. The neighbourhood, nestled between industrial zones with warehouses, railway lines, and port facilities on the St Lawrence River, has transformed into an impromptu birdwatching hotspot. On a frigid February morning, Ron Vandebeek from Ottawa, Ontario, joined the crowd, hoping to catch a glimpse of the rare visitor.
"It's a very rare bird and it's the first time it's been reported in all of Canada. We've never seen it before. So, when a bird is very rare, we'll travel farther," said Serge Benoît of Laval, Quebec, who also made the journey to witness the spectacle.
Vandebeek was the first to spot the robin as it alighted on a platform feeder set high in a hedge. With its striking orange breast feathers, the bird was easy to identify and seemed unfazed by the excitement and whirr of digital cameras, perhaps having adapted to its newfound celebrity status over the past weeks.
The Mystery of Its Journey
The European robin's normal home range spans from Scotland to Turkey and as far north as Sweden during breeding season, with seasonal migration stops in Iceland. Its appearance in Montreal has left experts puzzled and delighted. "How did it travel thousands of kilometres from its home territory, and will it survive a very cold Montreal winter?" are questions on everyone's mind.
Maggie MacPherson, an evolutionary ecologist at Trent University in Ontario, notes that if European robins migrate at all, they typically only travel short distances, making this sighting even more extraordinary. "That makes this sighting just amazing," she said.
Two leading theories have emerged to explain the robin's arrival. One suggests it caught a ride on a container ship to the Port of Montreal, while the other posits it was caught in a storm that blew it across the Atlantic. MacPherson leans toward the storm theory, speculating that the bird may have been swept up in an autumn storm and has likely been in the area since last autumn, only identified in January.
"It was part of a population that was migratory, got to the coast and then got swept up in a storm that actually carried it across the ocean," she theorised. Alternatively, a storm could have swept it out to sea, where it boarded a ship bound for Montreal.
Survival in a Harsh Climate
Montreal is experiencing its coldest winter in four years, with temperatures dropping to -25C in January. While the robin's usual diet consists of insects, it is omnivorous when necessary, and bird fans are ensuring it has enough to eat. Sheldon Harvey of Bird Protection Quebec believes that as long as the bird can find sustenance, it should survive. "For that type of bird, it's really driven by food. As long as they can find food, their metabolism will keep them through the cold," he said.
The bird's distinctive appearance has made it easier to spot, according to Ted Floyd, editor of the American Birding Association's Birding Magazine. "A lot of the really rare birds that show up in North America are pretty drab and brown and boring so they're easily overlooked. But the European robin is one of the most iconic birds on Earth and American birders know what it looks like. So they would have noticed that," he explained.
A Growing Trend of Vagrant Birds
There has been a sharp increase in rare bird sightings over the past decade, though Floyd cautions that this may be due to more birdwatchers with better cameras and social networks rather than an actual rise in vagrant birds. "There are many, many more people watching birds with really good cameras and social networks where they are discussing their findings," he said.
This phenomenon is not one-sided. In 2008, a white-crowned sparrow native to North America drew crowds of birdwatchers in North Norfolk, England. Other recent celebrity vagrants in Canada include a taiga flycatcher identified in Vancouver in December, another first for the country, and a Steller's sea eagle, first spotted in December 2024, which made its home in a Newfoundland park.
MacPherson suggests that changes in storm patterns due to the climate crisis could lead to more unlikely bird visitors in North America, as well as more bird deaths from severe storms. "I think it's not out of the question that if we're having more storms, we could get more vagrants that are being swept up in this storm situation, which can happen both in fall and in spring migration," she said.
An Uncertain Future
MacPherson estimates the robin is a young adult of about two years old, with a lifespan of five to eight years. It is not impossible that it will spend the remainder of its life in the Montreal area. However, Harvey expressed concern for solo birds like this robin. "We always feel kinda bad when a solo bird of a species shows up. Other birds that have shown up like this robin, they tend to suddenly disappear. We don't know where they go or what happens to them," he said.
Despite the uncertainty, birdwatchers like Vandebeek are cherishing the experience. "It's neat to see a bird totally out of its environment," he said, adding another sighting to his list of 5,000. As Harvey noted, "But when something really bizarre like this happens, you just go out, you enjoy it and you know that's all you can do."
