Birdwatchers have flocked to a quiet Montreal street to catch a glimpse of Canada's first recorded European robin, a 'vagrant' bird that has taken up residence during a bitterly cold winter. The bird, first spotted in early January, has drawn hundreds of enthusiasts to the neighbourhood, which sits between industrial areas and the St Lawrence River.
Ron Vandebeek from Ottawa braved frigid February temperatures to see the robin, which is only the fifth or sixth sighting in North America. 'Did it island hop from Iceland to Greenland to here?' he wondered. 'That's a lot of hopping.' The bird's normal range spans western Europe, from Scotland to Turkey, and as far north as Sweden.
The robin's striking orange breast makes it easy to identify, said Ted Floyd of the American Birding Association. '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.'
Experts are puzzled by the bird's arrival. Maggie MacPherson, an evolutionary ecologist at Trent University, noted that European robins typically migrate only short distances, making the long journey unlikely. Theories include the bird catching a ride on a container ship to the Port of Montreal or being blown off course by a storm. MacPherson believes it may have arrived during an autumn storm and remained undetected until January.
Despite Montreal's coldest winter in four years, with temperatures dropping to -25C, the robin appears to be surviving thanks to its omnivorous diet and food provided by bird fans. Sheldon Harvey of Bird Protection Quebec said, 'As long as they can find food, their metabolism will keep them through the cold.'
