Red capped robin птица

Red-capped robin facts for kids

The red-capped robin (Petroica goodenovii) is a small passerine bird native to Australia. Found in drier regions across much of the continent, it inhabits scrub and open woodland. Like many brightly coloured robins of the family Petroicidae, it is sexually dimorphic. Measuring 10.5–12.5 cm (4.1–4.9 in) 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 underparts and shoulders are white. The female is an undistinguished grey-brown. This species uses a variety of songs, and males generally sing to advertise territories and attract females. Birds are encountered in pairs or small groups, but the social behaviour has been little studied.

The position of the red-capped robin is unclear; it and its relatives are unrelated to European or American robins, but they appear to be an early offshoot of the songbird infraorder Passerida. The red-capped robin is a predominantly ground-feeding bird, and its prey consists of insects and spiders. Although widespread, it is uncommon in much of its range and has receded in some areas from human activity.

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Taxonomy

The red-capped robin was described by Nicholas Aylward Vigors and Thomas Horsfield in 1827, having been collected in the northern Spencer Gulf in South Australia. They named it Muscicapa goodenovii, and placed it among the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. The specific epithet goodenovii honours the Reverend Samuel Goodenough, Bishop of Carlisle and first treasurer of the Linnean Society.

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A guide to Australia’s most colourful robins

THE FIRST THING you need to know about Australia’s robins is that they’re nothing like European robins. They actually belong to a family called Petroicidae or Australasian robins, which contains 49 species.

As Bec Crew writes , Australian robins were named after European robins by ornithologists who travelled to Australia at the time of European settlement and decided to call them robins too, despite fundamental genetic and morphological differences between them.

Australia’s robins have to be considered some of the country’s cutest birds. Round, puffy and brightly coloured, they’re much-loved and widely photographed. Here are some of our favourites.

Hooded robin

(Image credit: Ashley Whitworth)

The hooded robin can be easily identified by its shiny black hood and white underparts, while female hooded robins are a more muted grey colour. It’s medium in size and can be found all across mainland Australia.

Pink robin

(Image credit: Ray Wilson/Alamy)

As their name suggests, pink robins are bright pink in colour, which has made them quite the social media star of late. These birds weigh a mere 10g and can be found in the south-eastern parts of Australia, including New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania.

Rose robin

(Image credit: James Peake/Alamy)

You’d be forgiven for getting the pink robin and the rose robin mixed up. The rose robin, however, has a more red-pink breast. Also, their underparts are white, while the pink robins entire breast is pink. They can be found in the south-eastern parts of Australia.

Flame robin

(Image credit: David Adam/Alamy)

The flame robin sports a fiery orange-coloured breast and are almost identical to the scarlet robin. They are known as the largest species of Australian robin, but that doesn’t mean they’re very big: they weigh between 11 – 15g. They can be found in the south-eastern parts of Australia.

Red-capped robin

(Image credit: Chris Watson)

The red-capped robin has a similar vivid colour to the flame robin, but it also sports a fiery-orange crown, which is the best way to tell the two apart. They can be found across most of mainland Australia.

Eastern yellow robin

(Image credit: Imogen Warren)

The eastern yellow robin is basically a bright yellow version of the pink robin. They can only be found in the rainforest areas of Queensland and New South Wales.

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Red-capped Robin

Often tame, confiding and curious, the Red-capped Robin is regularly recorded as part of mixed-species feeding flocks, often joining with other small insectivorous species, especially with various species of thornbills.

Identification

The male Red-capped Robin is black above and white below with a distinctive scarlet-red cap, white shoulders, and a red breast that contrasts strongly with a black throat. The black wing is barred white and the tail is black with white edges. Females are quite different in appearance: grey-brown above and off-white below, with a reddish cap, brown-black wings barred buff to white, and some have faint red on the breast. Young birds are similar to females but are streaked white above, have a pale buff wing bar, and their breast and sides are streaked or mottled dark brown.

Songs and Calls

Males sing with characteristic dry, repeated trill: ‘dit-dit-drr-it’. Both sexes have a ‘tick’ call. Bird call recorded by: Fred Van Gessel

Location

The Red-capped Robin is found from Queensland (rarely above latitude 20°S), through New South Wales, mainly west of the Great Dividing Range, to Victoria and South Australia. Also found in Western Australia in inland regions north to the Pilbara region, rarely seen on the south coast or far south-west. An isolated population occurs on Rottnest Island. Widespread in Northern Territory south of latitude 20°S. The Red-capped Robin will visit areas along the east coast during droughts.

Habitat

The Red-capped Robin is found in most inland habitats that have tall trees or shrubs, such as eucalypt, acacia and cypress pine woodlands. It is mainly found in the arid and semi-arid zones, south of the Tropics, with some extension into coastal regions. The species is seen on farms with scattered trees, as well as vineyards and orchards. It is only occasionally reported in gardens.

Behaviour

Foraging Red-capped Robins usually pounce onto their prey on the ground from an elevated perch, such as a low branch or a stump. The species has also been recorded raking the leaf litter with its feet, regularly stopping and holding its head cocked to one side, presumably to detect any prey it has disturbed.

Feeding

The Red-capped Robin feeds on insects and other invertebrates. It forages on the ground or in low vegetation, and will often perch on a stump or fallen branch, darting down to take insects from the ground. Can be seen in mixed feeding flocks with other small insect-eating birds such as Willie Wagtails, Rufous Whistlers and Black-faced Woodswallows.

Breeding

Red-capped Robins breed in pairs within a breeding territory established and defended by the male. The male sings from perches around the boundary of the territory to deter other Red-capped Robins and also other robin species, such as the Scarlet Robin, P. multicolor. The female chooses a nest site in a tree fork and builds an open, cup-shaped nest of bark, grass, and rootlets, bound together with spider web, lined with soft materials, often camoflaged with lichen, bark and mosses. The male feeds the female during nest-building and incubation. The female incubates the eggs alone and both sexes feed the young. Once the young have fledged, they may remain in their parents’ territories for up to one and a half months before dispersing. Nests may be parasitised by cuckoos. Predators of nestlings include the Grey Shrike-thrush, Colluricincla harmonica, and the Grey Butcherbird, Craticus torquatus.

Research by the Australian Museum (Major et al., 1999) has shown that male Red-capped Robin density is much lower in small, linear bushland remnants than in large non-linear remnants. The small remnants represented a higher risk of predation, making them much less suitable as breeding habitat.

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Red-capped Robin

Both male and female Red-capped Robins respond strongly to playback of their species’ song by flying to the source, flitting about in agitation, and sometimes replying with their own song.

The male Red-capped Robin is black above and white below with a distinctive scarlet-red cap, white shoulders, and a red breast that contrasts strongly with a black throat. The black wing is barred white and the tail is black with white edges. Females are quite different in appearance: grey-brown above and off-white below, with a reddish cap, brown-black wings barred buff to white, and some have faint red on the breast. Young birds are similar to females but are streaked white above, have an pale buff wing bar and their breast and sides are streaked or mottled dark-brown.

The Red-capped Robin is the smallest red robin. It can be distinguished from other red robins by the unique red cap in the male, and by the dull red cap in the female. Males are similar to the Crimson Chat, Epthianura tricolor, but this species has a white throat, a white eye, is not as plump and lacks the white wing streak.

The Red-capped Robin is found from Queensland (rarely above latitude 20°S), through New South Wales, mainly west of the Great Dividing Range, to Victoria and South Australia. Also found in Western Australia in inland regions north to the Pilbara region, rarely being seen on south coast or far south-west. An isolated population occurs on Rottnest Island. Widespread in Northern Territory south of latitude 20°S. The Red-capped Robin will visit areas along the east coast during droughts.

The Red-capped Robin is found in most inland habitats that have tall trees or shrubs, such as eucalypt, acacia and cypress pine woodlands. It is mainly found in the arid and semi-arid zones, south of the Tropics, with some extension into coastal regions. The species is seen on farms with scattered trees, as well as vineyards and orchards. It is only occasionally reported in gardens.

Partial seasonal migrant, moving to more open areas in winter, usually in south of range.

The Red-capped Robin feeds on insects and other invertebrates. It forages on the ground or in low vegetation, and will often perch on a stump or fallen branch, darting down to take insects from the ground. Can be seen in mixed feeding flocks with other small insect-eating birds such as Willie Wagtails, Rufous Whistlers and Black-faced Woodswallows.

Red-capped Robins breed in pairs within a breeding territory established and defended by the male. The male sings from perches around the boundary of the territory to deter other Red-capped Robins and also other robin species, such as the Scarlet Robin, P. multicolor. The female chooses a nest site in a tree-fork and builds an open, cup-shaped nest of bark, grass, and rootlets, bound together with spider web, lined with soft materials and often camoflaged with lichen, bark and mosses. The male feeds the female during nest-building and incubation. The female incubates the eggs alone and both sexes feed the young. Once the young have fledged, they may remain in their parents’ territories for up to one and a half months before dispersing. Nests may be parasitised by cuckoos. Predators of nestlings include the Grey Shrike-thrush, Colluricincla harmonica, and the Grey Butcherbird, Craticus torquatus.

Research by the Australian Museum (Major et al., 1999) has shown that male Red-capped Robin density is much lower in small, linear bushland remnants than in large non-linear remnants. The small remnants represented a higher risk of predation, making them much less suitable as breeding habitat.

Populations of Red-capped Robins have declined in many places as a result of land-clearing and habitat loss. Some areas that have experienced significant declines include: the Cumberland Plain Woodland of the Sydney Basin, Rottnest Island and the wheatbelt, Western Australia, and around Rockhampton, Queensland, where the local population has disappeared.

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