‘We feel kinda bad when a solo bird shows up’: Canada sees its first European robin – but how did it get there?

Birdwatchers flock to Montreal for rare sighting of vagrant' bird that has made its home during a bitterly cold winter

On a quiet Montreal street of low-rise brick apartment buildings on one side and cement barrier wall on the other, a crowd has gathered, binoculars around their necks and cameras at the ready. A European robin has taken up residence in the neighbourhood, which is sandwiched between two industrial areas with warehouses and railway lines and, a few blocks away, port facilities on the St Lawrence River.

Ron Vandebeek from Ottawa, Ontario, is here on a frigid February morning hoping to see the rare bird, which was first spotted at the beginning of January.