Rank Species | Family Petroicidae Higher classification Melanodryas Order Passerine | |
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Similar Bird, Yellow‑throated honeyeater, White‑browed robin, Strong‑billed honeyeater, Western yellow robin | ||
Dusky robin
The dusky robin (Melanodryas vittata) is a small passerine bird native to Tasmania. A member of the Australian robin family Petroicidae, it is not related to robins of Europe and North America. It is a brown-plumaged bird of open woodland.
Contents
Dusky robin call song
Taxonomy
The dusky robin was first described by the French naturalists Jean René Constant Quoy and Joseph Paul Gaimard in 1830, and was known for many years as Petroica vittata before being placed in its current genus Melanodryas. Two subspecies are recognised, one on the Tasmanian mainland and one on King Island. 'Stump robin' was a name given it by early settlers from its habit of sitting on stumps or posts. Other local names include 'wood robin' and 'sad robin'.
The Australian robins were classified for a time in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae or the whistler family Pachycephalidae, before being placed in their own family Petroicidae, or Eopsaltridae. 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.
Description
Measuring 16–17 cm (6.4-6.8 in) in length, the dusky robin lacks the bright colours of its robin relatives. The male and female are similar in appearance, with greyish- or olive-brown upperparts and narrow white shoulder edge, and white patch on the wing. The throat is white and the underparts a pale brown. The feathers of the tail are brown with white edges. The bill is black, and the eyes and legs brown-black.
Distribution and habitat
The dusky robin is endemic to Tasmania, where it is widespread. Its preferred habitat is open eucalypt forest and coastal heath.
Breeding
The breeding season is from July to December, and one or two broods are raised. Placed in a fork in a tree or stump, often a fire-blackened one, the nest is a neat cup-shaped structure made of grass and bark, often only two or three metres above the ground. The clutch consists of two to four pale olive- to blue-green eggs splotched with darker green and brown, and measures 22 mm x 17 mm (0.9 x 0.6 in).