The flame robin (Petroica phoenicea) is a small passerine bird native to Australia. It is a moderately common resident of the coolest parts of south-eastern Australia, including Tasmania. Like the other two red-breasted Petroica robins—the scarlet robin and the red-capped robin—it is often simply called the robin redbreast. Like many brightly coloured robins of the Petroicidae, it is sexually dimorphic. Measuring long, the flame robin has dark brown eyes and a small thin black bill. The male has a brilliant orange-red chest and throat, and a white patch on the forehead above the bill. Its upper parts are iron-grey with white bars, and its tail black with white tips. Female coloration is a muted grey-brown. Its song has been described as the most musical of its genus.
The position of the flame robin and its Australian relatives on the passerine family tree is unclear; the Petroicidae are not closely related to either the European or American robins, but appear to be an early offshoot of the Passerida group of songbirds. The flame robin is predominantly insectivorous, pouncing on prey from a perch in a tree, or foraging on the ground. A territorial bird, the flame robin employs song and plumage displays to mark out and defend its territory. It is classified by BirdLife International as least concern.
Taxonomy The flame robin was first described by the French naturalists Jean René Constant Quoy and Joseph Paul Gaimard in 1830 as Muscicapa chrysoptera.Quoy, Jean René Constant; Gaimard, Joseph Paul in Dumont-d'Urville, J. (1830). Voyage de découvertes de l'Astrolabe exécuté par ordre du Roi, pendant les anneés 1826–1827–1828–1829, sous le commandement de M.J. Dumont-d'Urville. Zoologie. Paris: J. Tastu Vol. 1 The specific epithet chrysoptera is derived from the Ancient Greek words 'golden', and 'feather'.
John Gould placed the flame robin in its current genus as Petroica phoenicea in his 1837 description, and it was this latter binomial name that has been used since that time. Given this, Quoy and Gaimard's name was declared a nomen oblitum. The generic name is derived from the Ancient Greek words , 'rock', and , 'home', from the birds' habit of sitting on rocks.Boles, p. 66. The specific epithet is also derived from Ancient Greek, from the adjective 'crimson, dark red'. It is one of five red- or pink-breasted species colloquially known as "red robins", as distinct from the "yellow robins" of the genus Eopsaltria. Although named after the European robin, the flame robin is not closely related to either it or the American robin. The Australian robins were placed in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae,Boles, p. xv. and the whistler family Pachycephalidae,Boles, p. 35. before being classified in their own family Petroicidae.Gill, F. and D. Donsker, eds. (2020). IOC World Bird List (v 10.1). Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.10.1. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/ Sibley and Ahlquist's DNA-DNA hybridisation studies placed the robins in a Corvida parvorder comprising many tropical and Australian passerines, including pardalotes, fairy-wrens and honeyeaters, as well as crows. However, subsequent molecular research (and current consensus) places the robins as a very early offshoot of the Passerida, or "advanced" songbirds, within the songbird lineage.
No subspecies are recognised,Higgins et al., p. 666. and the degree of geographic variation is unclear. Adult male birds which breed on the mainland have been reported as having lighter upperparts and underparts than their Tasmanian relatives, and females are said to be browner, but these differences may also result from worn plumage. Furthermore, migration across the Bass Strait by some birds obfuscates the issue. Mainland and Tasmanian birds are the same size.Higgins et al., p. 681. Ornithologists Richard Schodde and Ian Mason argued that the poor quality of museum collections and partially migratory habits meant that discrete subspecies could not be distinguished on the basis of the observed variation within the species.
Flame-breasted robin was the common name formerly used for the species, and it was gradually abbreviated to flame robin.Boles, p. 68. Other names recorded include bank robin, redhead, and (inaccurately) robin redbreast. Flame robin is the preferred vernacular name of the International Ornithological Congress.Frank Gill and Minturn Wright, Birds of the World: Recommended English Names, Princeton University Press, 2006.
Description
The largest of the red robins, the flame robin is long. It has a more slender build than other members of the genus Petroica, with relatively long wings and neck and small head. The male is easily distinguished by the bright orange-red plumage of the throat, breast, and abdomen. The crown, nape, ear coverts, hindneck, and sides of neck are dark grey, and lores and chin are a grey-black. The grey feathers of the sides of the crown may be suffused with dull orange.Higgins et al., p. 678. The rest of the upperparts, comprising the wings, back and tail, are dark grey. There is a small, white frontal spot above the bill, and the wing bar and outer tail shafts are white. The feathers of the posterior belly, flanks, and vent are white with grey-black bases. The female is plainly coloured—pale brown overall, and a lighter buff underneath. The lower belly, sides, and underside are a soft off-white colour. Similar to the male, feathers on the sides of the crown might have a subtle hint of dull orange, and this coloration could also extend to the feathers on the breast area. There are small, off-white marks on the wings and above the bill.Higgins et al., p. 679. The bill, legs, feet, and claws are black, and the eyes dark brown.Higgins et al., p. 680. A flame robin with an all lemon-yellow breast and otherwise female plumage was observed in a small flock of flame robins near Swansea, in eastern Tasmania, in September 1950.
Nestlings have dark grey or brown down, cream to grey bills, cream gapes and orange throats. The plumage of juvenile birds in their first moult resembles that of the adult female, but the head and upperparts are streaked and slightly darker. Soon after fledging, juveniles moult into their first immature plumage, and more closely resemble the adult female. The breasts of male juveniles may have some orange feathers. Birds in their second year moult into a second immature phase, some males of which may resemble adult males, while others retain a more immature brown plumage. Determining the age and sex of birds in brown plumage can be very difficult. Information on exact timing of moulting is lacking, but the replacement of primary feathers takes place over the summer months between December and February.
The colour alone is not a reliable guide to determine the species, as some scarlet robins (P. boodang) take on an orange hue, but while male scarlet and red-capped robins (P. goodenovii) have red breasts and black throats, the flame robin's breast plumage extends right up to the base of the bill. It is also a little slimmer and has a smaller head than the scarlet robin, and is clearly larger than the red-capped robin. Females of the respective species are harder to tell apart. Those of red-capped, rose, and pink robins are all smaller, with wing lengths less than , smaller than the smallest flame robin. The female scarlet robin has a more pronounced red flush to the breast and the spot on the forehead above the bill is more prominent and white rather than off-white.
The flame robin's calls are grouped into louder and quieter calls; the former can be heard from away, while the latter, which are often briefer, from . Loud songs make up almost 90% of calls in spring, summer, and autumn, but less than 50% of calls from May to July. Males sing rarely during this time, although they do so to defend their territories.Higgins et al., p. 675. Their song is more varied and complex than that of the scarlet robin, and has been described as the most musical of the red robins. A series of descending notes in groups of three, the musical song has been likened to the phrases, "you-may-come, if-you-will, to-the-sea"Slater, Peter (1974) A Field Guide to Australian Birds: Passerines. Adelaide: Rigby. or "you-are-not a-pretty-little-bird like-me". Both males and females sing this song, often perched from a vantage point, such as a stump or fence. This loud song is used to attract the attention of a potential mate, and to announce the bringing of food to its mate or young. The softer call has been described as a , or , and is used as a contact call in the vicinity of the nest.Higgins et al., p. 676. The female makes a hissing sound, if approached while on the nest, and the male has been recorded making a wheezing call when displaying around the nest.
Distribution and habitat The flame robin is found in temperate regions of southeastern Australia and all over Tasmania, although it is less common in the southwest and west. In Victoria, it is more common in uplands than lower altitudes.Higgins et al., p. 667. It ranges from the Adelaide and Murray Plains around the mouth of the Murray River in southeastern South Australia, across Victoria, and into the South West Slopes and southern regions of New South Wales. Further north, it is found along the Great Dividing Range and its western slopes, with a few records from southeast Queensland.Higgins et al., p. 668. Within its range, it is generally migratory, moving from alpine and subalpine regions to lowlands in winter, although the breeding and non-breeding ranges overlap. There is some evidence that male birds migrate several days before the females. It is unclear what proportion of Tasmanian birds cross Bass Strait to winter in Victoria.Higgins et al., p. 669. Birds which remain in Tasmania move away from breeding areas, and are found in paddocks in loose flocks of up to fourteen birds. They have left these areas by August, and immature birds appear to disperse earlier. A field study in the outer Melbourne suburb of Langwarrin showed that climate did not influence peak abundance of flame robins there. The international organisation BirdLife International has regraded it from Least Concern to Near Threatened in 2004, due to its population decline over the previous 25 years. The Australian Government had classified it as Least Concern, but noted evidence of decline at the edges of its non-breeding range; it has become rare in South Australia, and uncommon in the lowlands of Victoria. Flame robins are not rare in the Victorian high country. They are frequently encountered at high elevations on the Great Dividing Range, especially in sparser snow gum woodland and similar habitat, and during the summer breeding season are one of the most reliably observed species around the summit of Mount Macedon, NW of Melbourne.
In spring and summer, the flame robin is more often found in wet eucalypt forest in hilly or mountainous areas, particularly the tops and slopes, to an elevation of . It generally prefers areas with more clearings and less understory. In particular, it prefers tall forests dominated by such trees as snow gum (Eucalyptus pauciflora), mountain ash ( E. regnans), alpine ash (E. delegatensis), manna gum (E. viminalis), messmate stringybark (E. obliqua), black gum (E. aggregata), white mountain gum (E. dalrympleana), brown barrel (E. fastigata), narrow-leaved peppermint (E. radiata), and black peppermint (E. amygdalina). It is occasionally encountered in temperate rainforest. In the autumn and winter, birds move to more open areas, such as grasslands and open woodlands, particularly those containing river red gum (E. camaldulensis), Blakely's red gum (E. blakelyi), yellow box (E. melliodora), grey box (E. microcarpa), and mugga ironbark (E. sideroxylon), at lower altitude.