Oleg Zabluda's blog
Thursday, December 29, 2011
 
When we came to California in 1999, we immediately found ourselves surrounded by North American Robins (Turdus...
When we came to California in 1999, we immediately found ourselves surrounded by North American Robins (Turdus migratorius) "Странствующий дрозд". They are beautiful birds, but we didn't know what they are called in Russian. Back in 1999, Russian Internet was in dark ages. The closest bird we found was European Robin (Erithacus rubecula) "Малиновка". So we called our Robin "Североамеринсанская Малиновка", and every time we see them, which is pretty much every day, immediately start singing the romantic Soviet song about European Robin:

Малиновки заслыша голосок: "HAR! HAR!"
Припомню я забытые свиданья....

"HAR! HAR!" because that's exactly how American Robin sounds. Living in a large city back in USSR, we never saw any birds except sickly pigeons, sparrows and crows, so we had no idea how they actually sing. We had no doubts that neither did the authors of the song, and it was just another Soviet lie.

Wadayukonow. It's easier and easier to find info in Russian. Turns out the two birds are not actually closely related. European Robin does sing like so: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Erithacus_rubecula.ogg and is from order Flycatchers (Мухоловки), while American Robin is a Thrush "Странствующий дрозд". Before, we did have nonmigratory Yuri Drozd and Elena Drozd, as well as [formerly] Странствующий статистик Anna Chernova. Now we have a combination.

Right now, right outside our kitchen window, a North American Robin in breeding plumage constantly hangs around a bush with mouthwatering red berries. Standby for pictures. He is very camera-shy. CA is weird, lots of unexpected mating displays in New Year time, from Robins or Snowy Egrets with females playing hard to get, etc...

Also see
https://plus.google.com/112065430692128821190/posts/LeK7JGmyB3Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhbNyasaoJw

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