Unusual (or is it?) Robin Behaviour

[Basil]

For the last couple of weeks I've been noting the unusual behaviour of an adolescent robin in our garden.  (Looks exactly like a robin, but with a sort of mottled brown breast)
This chap seems unusually friendly.  (Yes, I know robins aren't actually "friendly" - they're just more tolerant of humans than other birds)
This weekend, Billy (that is his name) seems to have become totally attached to me.  The moment I open the patio doors in the morning and stagger out with a mug of coffee in my dressing gown in the morning, he appears, sitting on the path no more than two feet from my slippers and just sits looking at me.  At any time during the day today if I go and sit at the bench table on the lawn, he appears within minutes and sits on the table or hops around my feet.  When I was on all fours doing a little light weeding he flew over and sat on my back for a couple of seconds.  To top it all, when I came back in through the patio doors this afternoon, he followed me in!
Gah!  Remove dog, cat, close all inner doors, open all windows until he found his way out.

The strange thing is, Billy doesn't exhibit this behaviour with Mrs. B.  It seems to be just me.  If I venture out into the garden at any time, he appears and just hops around wherever I am.  How odd!
I've desperately been trying to get photos, but he's a lively little bugger and so far I have 25 shots of Where Billy Was 3 Seconds Ago.

There are two adult robins around too.  One sort of ignores Billy, the other sort of does a wing flutter non contact "Bugger Off" thing.
I'm guessing that Billy is a young male and his dad is gently turfing him out of the territory.
Or could it be the hen doing that if Billy is a female? 

[Ruth]

Basil.  You have a stalker.  A teenytiny feathered stalker.

Have you been feeding him?

[Basil]

No, I don't start feeding the birds again until after the autumn.  (Based on my theory that feeding them when grub is abundant doesn't help them learn teh skilz they need to look after themselves.)

[Basil]

The strange thing is, Billy doesn't exhibit this behaviour with Mrs. B.  It seems to be just me.

Mrs B. is a bit grumpy about this.  She pretends not to be, but I can tell.

[Basil]

Billy was helping me clear a bramble patch of long non fruit bearing runners this afternoon.  Doing his usual cheeky, over tame thing, hoping around my feet, showing me which runner to cut next by sitting on it, etc.
I was tempted to get the bird food stuff from out of the back of the shed and see if I could get him to take a meal worm from my hand.
Luckily, I came to my senses before I did that.  Billy is way too familiar with humans for his own good.
So sadly, I've taken a leaf out of his dad's book and I am now shooing him away.

  See you Billy.  Good luck with the winter mate.

[Biggsy]

That's so lovely.

I wouldn't worry about him being tame with humans if he's scared of cats.  It might be too late for him to "wild up" anyway.

[Wowbagger]

It is possible to feed robins with mealworms or maggots straight out of your hand once you gain their confidence.

Basil, are any of your garments so festering that they contain the insect larvae that robins so crave?

[Kim]

*makes a note not to park her bike at Basil's house*

[Peter]

I don't think it's unusual at all, Basil.  We've got a moulting adult doing exactly this at the moment.  It is not particular as to the personnel and is equally at home with any of the three of us.  A couple of weeks ago it had moulted its tail and was bouncing around like a tennis ball!  It does it to our neighbour, too (we share a back yard).

It's great!

[Basil]

Sorry about the quality.  As I said, he wouldn't top bouncing long enough for me to get a focus on the closer shots. 
Here's a couple of the not so close ones that have almost worked.

Helping me with the brambles




We take a break on the garden bench

[bumper]

He thinks you're the local boar Basil, he's letting you do the hard work and getting free food because of it.

Clever little buggers

[Ruth]

Awww.  He so cute.

[pcolbeck]

I read somewhere that it's only British robins that do the following people around, sitting on your spade handle etc. Europeans robins are far more afraid of people.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

That's cos BRITONS are civilised and don't eat robins.

[Wowbagger]

I read somewhere that it's only British robins that do the following people around, sitting on your spade handle etc. Europeans robins are far more afraid of people.

From my (very) limited experience of foreign avians, our visit to Germany indicated that the black redstart fills the niche there that the robin fills here. I don't remember seeing any robins when we were there, but there were lots of black redstarts.

That photo shows a lock gate being painted by a couple of Herren. The was a black redstart's nest in the lock's structure and they seemed completely unconcerned by the men's presence.

Later on the same trip I was very surprised to see what looked like a fieldfare scratching around for worms very close to my feet when we were taking tea and cake close to the Rhine. Firstly, this was early June and the fieldfare is a winter visitor; secondly, fieldfares are very wary of humans. It wasn't until I returned to Britain that I learned that fieldfares are winter visitors to Britain whereas they are resident in Germany. Presumably the British fieldfares, which spend the summer in Siberia or somewhere, are very suspicious of humans.