The red-capped robin is a small passerine bird native to Australia. Found in drier regions across much of the continent, it inhabits scrub and open woodland. The male has a distinctive red cap and red breast, black upperparts, and a black tail with white tips. This species uses a variety of songs, and males generally sing to advertise territories and attract females.
About Red-capped robin in brief
The red-capped robin is a small passerine bird native to Australia. Found in drier regions across much of the continent, it inhabits scrub and open woodland. Measuring 10. 5–12. 5 cm in length, the robin has a small, thin, black bill, and dark brown eyes and legs. The male has a distinctive red cap and red breast, black upperparts, and a black tail with white tips. The female is an undistinguished grey-brown. This species uses a variety of songs, and males generally sing to advertise territories and attract females. Although widespread, it is uncommon in much of its range and has receded in some areas from human activity. It is one of five red- or pink-breasted species colloquially known as’red robins’ Within the genus Petroica it is not closely related to the American robin or the European robin; but it is named after the European ROBIN. Two red-caroten pigments are responsible for the distinctive plumage of the red-Capped Robin. The bird moults once a year, after the breeding season, which takes place between December and April. In the Arandic languages spoken in Central Australia, thered-caps is known as ak-arl-atwe-rre-ye meaning ‘the head that they hit’ from an ancient myth of it being hit on the head and bleeding.
The smallest of the Red robins is 10.5-12.5 cm long with a wingspan of 15-19. 5cm, and weighs around 7–9 g. It has longer legs than the other robins of the genusPetroica. Its upperparts are jet-black with white shoulder bars, and its tail is black withwhite tips. All colours are sharply delineated from one another. Some females have a reddish tint to the breast, and some males have a small black bill and darkbrown eyes. Immature birds initially resemble the female; it is only with their second moult, at around a year of age, that males adopt their distinctive adult plumage at around around a decade of age. It has also been referred to as redhead, redcap, robin red-breast or red-throated robin. It was described by Nicholas Aylward Vigors and Thomas Horsfield in 1827, having been collected in the northern Spencer Gulf in South Australia. The generic name is derived from the Ancient Greek words petros ‘rock’ and oikos ‘home’, from the bird’s habit of sitting on rocks. No subspecies are recognised, and the only geographic variation recorded in plumage is a tendency for females from more arid regions to have paler plumage.
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This page is based on the article Red-capped robin published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
