Robin on the Spade (gouache style)

Few British birds are as easy to recognise as the robin: orange-red face and breast edged with grey, olive-brown back and a round, upright stance. Males and females look alike, and both hold their own territories through winter, which is why robins keep singing when most birds have gone quiet. Young robins are speckled brown all over and don't get the red breast until their first moult in late summer.

Robins feed mainly on worms, insects and grubs, so a gardener turning soil is a gift to them. Digging over a vegetable bed in winter brings food to the surface, and a robin will often wait close by, using a fork or spade handle as a lookout. You can help with mealworms, suet and crushed peanuts on a bird table or ground tray, plus fresh water when ponds freeze. Open-fronted nest boxes tucked into ivy or a hedge may be used from March.

The robin here is perched on a spade handle in a frosty vegetable bed, with leeks standing behind. It's a winter scene: frozen ground, a crop that stands through the cold, and one bird still keen to keep the gardener company. That pairing of red breast and spade is how the robin earned its place on the Christmas card.