Birds associated with Christmas

Dr Stephen Moss, Global Chief Birding Adviser, NETVUE Birdfy

When it comes to birds associated with Christmas, the first one that comes to mind is the bird served at the Christmas dinner table in both the UK and the US – the turkey! But there are many other species linked with the festive season around the world…

1. TURKEY

We are all familiar with the turkey – a large, domesticated bird, served for groups of family and friends at the annual Christmas lunch or dinner – and, in the USA, at Thanksgiving in November. An estimated 250 to 300 million turkeys are consumed by Americans every year, the vast majority of them at those two key celebrations. This is not just for cultural reasons, but practical ones too: no other bird can serve so many people at a single sitting as the turkey. But many people are unaware that the bird is descended from the Wild Turkey, the world’s largest gamebird, native to the forests of North America and brought back to Europe in the early sixteenth century.

2. GOOSE & SWAN

The two other birds served as an alternative to turkey at Christmas are the domestic goose and, on rare occasions, the swan. Before the turkey was domesticated and brought to Europe the goose was the standard fare; the species was domesticated in Europe (from the native Greylag Goose) between 7,000 and 5,000 years ago, about the same time as another year-round staple food, the domestic chicken (from the wild Red Junglefowl of Asia). Mute Swans are only allowed to be eaten by a small and select group of people, including the reigning British monarch and their family.

3. WREN

The tiny Eurasian Wren – Britain’s commonest bird with more than eight million breeding pairs – is closely associated with the day after Christmas Day: December 26th. Known colloquially as Boxing Day, and also the feast day of St Stephen, this was the annual occasion of the Wren Hunt, This grisly ritual was held as late as the mid-twentieth century in parts of western Britain and Ireland, and involved bands of young men and boys wandering around their village in pursuit of a wren which, once captured, was paraded around in a cage for all to see, and then killed. Fortunately the Wren Hunt is now only carried out with model wrens, as a reminder of an ancient historical custom.

4. STARLING

Vilified in North America as a non-native invasive pest, the Starling is not always popular in Britain, especially as flocks of the birds tend to dominate bird feeders, especially during the winter months. But on cold, bright afternoons during the Christmas holidays, hundreds of people gather at well-known hotpots such as Aberystwyth and Brighton piers, and near my home on the Avalon Marshes in Somerset, to watch hundreds of thousands of Starlings gathering in spectacular aerial displays known as murmurations, before the birds go to their nighttime roost.

5. CARDINAL

No other common and familiar backyard bird in North America is quite so brightly coloured as the Northern Cardinal, with the vivid red plumage of the male standing out very well, especially against a background of snow. The bird is named after the scarlet robes worn by the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church, whose colour symbolises the blood of Christ. Cardinals are members of the family Cardinalidae, along with grosbeaks, and more recently the North American tanagers. Like the European Robin in Britain, they often feature on Christmas cards, adding a welcome splash of colour at the darkest time of the year.

From Birdfy Feeder

6. GOLDCREST

Europe’s smallest bird (along with its close relative the Firecrest), the Goldcrest is a member of the family Regulidae, which also includes the equally tiny Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned Kinglets of North America. An adult Goldcrest tips the scales at just five grams (less than one-fifth of an ounce), the equivalent of an A4 sheet of paper or a 20 pence coin (or in the US, a nickel). Goldcrests survive during the short days and harsh weather of the northern European winter by searching for tiny insects amongst foliage and the branches of trees; and are also likely to visit gardens during the festive season.

7. EURASIAN BULLFINCH

While for the British, the quintessential Christmas bird is the European Robin [see below], in northern Europe, especially Scandinavia, the Eurasian Bullfinch – one of the kargest members of its family – plays that role. Like the Northern Cardinal of North America, the male Bullfinch’s plumage is very striking: with a deep cherry red breast contrasting with a black head. Just like the Cardinal, the Bullfinch’s plumage stands out strongly against the snow, making it the ideal winter symbol. Traditionally, the people of Norway and Sweden put out grain for Bullfinches in winter, to help them survive the cold. There the bird is known as the ‘Domherre’ or ‘Dompap’, which means 'cathedral priest’, again a reference to religious robes.

8. RED-CAPPED ROBIN

In Britain, Europe and North America, Christmas occurs in the middle of winter, the coldest and darkest time of the year, making the festive celebrations a welcome distraction at a time when we need it the most. But in Southern Hemisphere countries such as Australia, Christmas takes place at the height of summer, when the temperature and sunshine are at their peak. The European Robin is not found in Australia, but they do have their own set of ‘robins’, unrelated to the European or American species. These include the strikingly beautiful Red-capped Robin, with its bright scarlet breast and forehead, making it a suitable Christmas substitute for the European Robin.

9. PARTRIDGE

The best-known bird-related Christmas carol, ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’, ends with a puzzling line – ‘a Partridge in a pear tree’. Yet while the Red-legged Partridge, introduced from continental Europe to Britain for shooting, does very occasionally perch in trees, the native Grey Partridge does not – it is a shy, ground-dwelling bird, usually found in traditional farm fields. The confusion is in fact the result of a linguistic misunderstanding: the original phrase was ‘A partridge and a perdrix’ – this being the French word for partridge, pronounced ‘pair-dree’. Yet we continue to sing the wrong words every Christmas!

10. EUROPEAN ROBIN

I have left the best till last. The European Robin (a small member of the flycatcher family, as opposed to the American Robin, a large thrush) is the definitive bird associated with Christmas, especially in the UK. The association between Robins and Christmas first came about because as a small, ground-feeding songbird, Robins were especially vulnerable to spells of snow and ice and below-freezing temperatures, which in the era before global climate change often occurred around the Christmas season. This meant that Robins were often seen near our back doors, begging for food, and this tameness – along with their attractive red breasted appearance made them very popular. Then, in the Victorian period, postmen used to wear red jackets and were nicknamed ‘robins’ – following which artists began to depict Robins on Christmas cards.

If you want to find out more about birds associated with Christmas, check out my books:

• The Robin: A Biography (Penguin, 2017)
• The Wren: A Biography (Penguin, 2018)
• The Twelve Birds of Christmas (Penguin, 2019)

In the meantime, I wish you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, and bird-filled, New Year!