The three robin problem

What you will see in the coming video completely unexpected. I saw a robin fly into the lilac where Bobbit was after all his preening. He'd been quite quiet and actually had seemed rather anxious in the morning... in fact, I'll post that video first because after this, for the only time in recent days, he did not fly up to sing...

You can see the difference the day before, when as soon as he had the treat he was up in the tree singing.

Yeah, so the day was already less ordinary. I watched him preen for ages - he'd just taken a suet pellet from next to where I was sitting. Then he went into the tree but didn't really sing. A few quiet bars was all. And then this second robin arrived, whom I assumed was Tiny. But then there was another... You can see one whistling and moving her head side to side as Bobbit did in a previous video. I had thought this was seduction, but I have learned from David Lack's The Life of the Robin that this is a threat posture which is also used in the first stages of courtship!

This seemed strange. Was one robin Bobbit's mate or were there two intruders? Lack explains that robins lessen their singing after mating which may be why Bobbit's singing less... the song and the flashing of the red breast prevent the need for fights.

Either Tiny (who may be a he... but according to Len Howard, females have that long-legged look) or a male intruder was feeding from the front feeders for a long period one morning...

Subsequently, I have become convinced that Bobbit is paired up: he is flying around with a beak full of food...

AND I saw him feed Tiny. This is proof of pair bonding!