Halley's Robin
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Halley’s Robin, Turdus halleyi L 25-28 cm, WS 30-40 cm, Family: Turdidae
Description:
Large songbird with round body, long legs, and a long tail. Can appear quite plump when perched, more lean when running or standing. Similar to American Robin. Gray-brown upperparts and a black head. Throat and undersides speckled white and black, upper breast has an orange wash, belly entirely white. Two prominent white eye stripes trail down neck from white eye-ring. Outer tail feathers tipped white, bill yellow with black tip. In flight, they flash orange under the wings. Females duller overall, juveniles display more black spotting on breast, belly, and back.
Voice:
Song is a string of about 8-10 whistles in 4 two-syllable phrases, with each syllable rising and falling in pitch, typically in a low-high high-low low-high pattern, like questioning and answering. Will repeat song often in early morning around dawn, often before. Will also sing in the evening and twilight. Calls are warbled chucks, yeeps, and chirrs. Often make a sharp, explosive chirp when taking off.
Habitat:
Widespread range encompasses the entirety of Novasola and surrounding islands. A habitat generalist, Halley’s Robins can be seen in nearly all ecosystem types, though generally avoids especially wet areas. Most frequently seen in deciduous, conifer, and mixed woodlands, forests, scrubland, and grasslands, less common in alpine areas. Rarely seen in dunes or marshes. Common in suburban and urban gardens, parks, and green spaces as well, a frequenter of feeders and backyards. In winter they will migrate to lower altitudes and south of the 50°N latitude line.
Discussion:
The Halley’s Robin, also called the Comet Thrush, Cosmic Thrush, or Halley’s Thrush, owes its name to its prominent white eye streaks and breast spots, which early settlers thought looked like stars and comet trails. Richard Reichwald originally named it Comet Thrush in his expedition logs, but changed his description in 1910, two years before publishing his book, to Halley’s Robin, coinciding with the comet’s arrival. As the robin is named after Halley’s Comet, it is therefore vicariously named after astronomer Edmund Halley. In recent years there has been an international push to change all eponymous bird names in an attempt to remove "ownership" of species and not to honor problematic historical figures; those who wish to see this bird's common name changed prefer the name Comet Thrush.
A very common bird, Halley’s Robins are an extremely familiar sight across Novasola, equally comfortable in wild forests and manicured lawns. They are one of the few native birds not to suffer drastic population declines in recent years, instead actually becoming more populous as it has exploited the sorts of manmade ecosystems that come with urbanization. Halley’s Robins are closely related to the American Robin and fulfill a similar niche. Their diet consists of earthworms, snails, insects, and fruit like cherries, apples, sumac, dogwood, and various berries. They eat mostly invertebrates and are seen ground foraging in the summer and transition to more fruit during winter months. Like American Robins, they are often seen running along and pulling earthworms from the ground.
Males sing to attract mates in early spring and will sing for long bouts. They are one of the first songbirds to begin singing each morning, and will start again just after sunset. Pairs build nests low in shrubs, trees, or on ledges, and they will defend nest sites aggressively, which can become a problem for anyone whose porch or eaves a pair may nest upon. Their eggs are a notable sky blue with light brown spots.
In the fall and winter Halley’s Robins will form large nomadic flocks, migrating around the island in search of food, moving from one source to the next once each supply is exhausted. These migrating flocks have been documented with thousands of individual birds, and they can travel from one end of Novasola to the other before spring arrives.
A popular bird among Novasolites, the Halley’s Robin is as much a staple of Novasolan neighborhoods as mailboxes or driveways; they are however just as at home in the forests and prairies wherein they naturally evolved. Unlike most endemic birds, the Halley’s Robin has actually increased in numbers since white settlement of Novasola, but in Reichwald’s time “Comet Thrushes” were still common and beloved; early translations reveal he felt no differently.
“It seems I’ve no rest, as I have already described a number of birds for the expedition when our journey has not yet begun. In this month prior to our departure I have been in Cape George preparing, which has given me time to appreciate the cape’s native fauna. Perhaps none have had such impact on man’s life here as the Comet Thrush, whose morning and evening songs, like clockwork, have heralded the sun’s rise and fall each day and whose charm permeates every garden. Their voice is melodic and whimsical, which they sing earlier in the morning than most other cape birds, and again late in the evening. Their calls are varied but cheerful. A warm orange wash covers their breast like a sunset.” – Personal journal, March 9, 1902
“We have set camp on the northwestern shore of East Francis Island. Our goal is to explore East Francis for three days, based here, before moving on to Fairweather Sound. The country here is similar to sister West Francis, though steeper and with rougher portage. The fauna here is likewise similar though Dr. Sloan, who has after one day here described three beetles unique to the island, would disagree. I have observed a proper mixture of coastal fowl and songbirds. The first creature to greet us at dock was the familiar Comet Thrush, which Captain Dyer spotted just as we made landfall. We must have approached a nest, as soon both she and her male mate began scolding all members of the Corps, going so far as to mob and dive at some of the members. After a few minutes the pair realized the futility of their attacks and left us be.” – Expedition logs, April 15, 1902
“The Halley’s Robin, like the comet for which it is named, is above all reliable. No visit to Novasola can be expected to go without a sighting of this handsome bird, certainly in the summer months anyway.” – Native Birds of Novasola, 1912
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