‘Art thou the bird whom Man loves best,
The pious bird with the scarlet breast,
Our little English Robin …’
~  from William Wordsworth, ‘The Redbreast Chasing the Butterfly’, 1806

Blogger’s note: This particular little cutie, with whom I shared some quality moments – me chatting and it peeping – at Penarth Heads beach on Monday, is actually a Welsh (not English) Robin. And its breast is really more orange than red but I’ve just this week found out why it was formerly known as Redbreast and described as having a red or scarlet rather than orange breast – it’s because orange as a colour (which originated from the fruit of the same name) was unknown in Britain prior to the mid 16th century.