Rockin’ Robin: Beijingers Flock to Spot Rare Bird

Kyle Mullin, Deputy Managing Editor |  Jan 10, 2019 11:30 am | Add a comment | 196 reads

He may be little, but he’s flapped up a frenzy. A red and brown feathered European robin has been spotted at the Beijing Zoo, and it’s bound to be one of the capital’s biggest celebrity sightings of the year.

Think it’s nothing to get your feathers ruffled over? The crowd pictured below would disagree. They gathered to snap photos of the last European robin sighted in Beijing, in 2014. The bird now causing a stir at the Beijing Zoo is only the third known European robin to land in Beijing.

The last European robin sighting in Beijing, in 2014, attracted huge crowds

Terry Townshend, a British expat who has made a name for himself in Beijing as a bird watcher, environmentalist and wildlife blogger, took to his Twitter account @BirdingBeijing last night (Jan 9) with the news. Along with posting images of the robin and its many admiring onlookers at the Beijing Zoo, he also passed on a hypothesis as to why the bird was in town: “The Chinese are calling the Robin ‘a Brexit refugee!’”

When it comes to that joke, Townshend went on to tell the Beijinger: "The Robin is thought of as a British bird, which is why some people are calling it a 'Brexit refugee.' But of course it’s range extends across Europe and into Central Asia, so it’s most likely the bird at the zoo is from the eastern part of the range, and unlikely to have come from the UK."

For Townshend, who grew up birdwatching back in the UK, the buzz around this bird's Beijing arrival is both surreal and gratifying. He says: "It’s only the third time a Robin has turned up in Beijing, and of course it’s a beautiful bird, that’s why people are getting excited."

"A bird that most people take for granted in its home range can cause much excitement when it appears somewhere unusual," he adds.

And this isn't the only bird to have made headlines in Beijing media as of late. This past spring the death of a cuckoo affectionately referred to as "Flappy McFlapperson" by throngs on social media, was covered by numerous news outlets in China.

Continued

Bird migration and conservation clues in robin and Turtle dove genomes

December 21, 2018, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

The European robin and Turtle dove have had their genetic codes sequenced and assembled for the first time by scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and their collaborators. The genomes, completed today (21 December) will enable researchers to explore the genetic switches controlling bird migration and give insight into the magneto receptors that help robins 'see' the Earth's magnetic fields for navigation. The Turtle dove genome will help conservation efforts to save one of the UK's fastest declining bird species.

European robins live throughout Europe, Russia and western Siberia. While most British robins reside in the UK over winter, some birds will migrate to southern Europe to overwinter in warmer climates. Simultaneously in winter, migrant robins from Scandinavia, continental Europe and Russia head to the UK to avoid the harsh weather back home.

Turtle doves also migrate, visiting their breeding grounds in Europe and spending the winter months in Africa. However, since 1995, 94 per cent of Turtle doves have been lost and there are fewer than 5,000 breeding pairs left in the UK. The Turtle dove is the UK's fastest-declining bird species, and as a result, they are listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

Migration patterns and behaviours vary across species, but also within species. Similarly, environmental pressures such as disease and limited food resources affect various bird species differently. To fully understand the genetic components of complex traits, such as migration and breeding, the whole genetic code must be read and analysed.

The European robin and Turtle dove's genomes were read by the Sanger Institute and its partners, in celebration of Sanger's 25th anniversary.

Collaborators at the University of Lincoln sent robin and Turtle dove samples to the Sanger Institute near Cambridge. The sequencing teams extracted DNA from the samples and used PacBio SMRT Sequencing technology to generate the first reference genomes for robins and Turtle doves.

The European robin genome will enable researchers to explore the genetic switches underpinning migration, which tell robins when to leave and where to go. The robin's role as a model of bird migration will help in understanding the magneto receptors in birds' eyes that allow them to use the Earth's magnetic fields for navigation and also unpick migratory behaviour in other bird species.

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