The flame robin is a small passerine bird native to south-eastern Australia. 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. Classified by BirdLife International as Near Threatened, the species has suffered a marked decline in the past 25 years.
About Flame robin in brief
The flame robin is a small passerine bird native to south-eastern Australia. 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. Its song has been described as the most musical of its genus. Classified by BirdLife International as Near Threatened, the species has suffered a marked decline in the past 25 years. It is one of five red- or pink-breasted species colloquially known as \”red robins\”, as distinct from theyellow robins of the genus Eopsaltria. Although named after the European robin, the flame rob in is not closely related to either it or the American robin. The Australian robins were placed in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae, and the whistler family Pachycephalidae, before being classified in their own family Petroicidae. It has a more slender build than other members of the Petroica, with relatively long wings and small head and neck. The largest of the red robins is 12–14 cm long, and is easily distinguished by the bright orange plumage of the throat, throat, nape and nape. The crown, ear coverts, hindneck and neck are dark grey, grey and grey lores, and lores of the neck and chin are a lores and grey-black lores. It was first described by the French naturalists Jean René Constant Quoy and Joseph Paul Gaimard in 1830.
The generic name is derived from the Ancient Greek words petros ‘rock’ and oikos ‘home’, from the birds’ habit of sitting on rocks. Other common names recorded include redhead, redbreast, and vernacular name of the International Ornithological Congress (IOC) The species has been gradually abbreviated to the flame-breast robin and it was abbreviated bank robin in the 1970s and 1980s. The flame-asted robin was the most common name formerly used for the species, and it is now the preferred preferred name of the robin redbreasts. The bird is predominantly insectivorous, pouncing on prey from a perch in a tree, or foraging on the ground. Mainland and Tasmanian birds are the same size. 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. No subspecies are recognised and the degree of geographic variation is unclear. It appears to be an early offshoot of the Passerida group of songbirds, within the songbird lineage. However, subsequent molecular research places the robins as a very early off shoot of thePasserida, or \”advanced\” songbirds.
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This page is based on the article Flame robin published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 07, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
