The position ofthe Flame Robin and its Australian relatives on the passerine family tree isunclear; the Petroicidae are not closely related to either the European orAmerican Robins but appear to be an early offshoot of the Passerida group ofsongbirds. The Flame Robin is predominantly insectivorous, pouncing on preyfrom a perch in a tree, or foraging on the ground. A territorial bird, the FlameRobin employs song and plumage displays to mark out and defend its territory.Classified by BirdLife International as Near Threatened, the species hassuffered a marked decline in the past 25 years.
Description
The largest of thered robins, the Flame Robin is 12–14 cm (5–6 in) long. It has a more slenderbuild than other members of the genus Petroica, with relatively long wings andneck and small head. The male is easily distinguished by its bright orange-redplumage 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.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 outertail shafts are white. The feathers of the posterior belly, flanks and vent arewhite with grey-black bases. The female is plainly coloured—pale brown overall,and a lighter buff underneath. The posterior belly, flanks and vent areoff-white. As in the male, feathers on the side of the crown may be suffusedwith a dull orange, and this may also occur with breast feathers. There aresmall off-white marks on the wings and above the bill.The bill, legs, feet andclaws are black, and the eyes dark brown.A Flame Robin with an all lemon-yellowbreast and otherwise female plumage was observed in a small flock of FlameRobins near Swansea in eastern Tasmania in September 1950.Nestlings havedark grey or brown down, cream to grey bills, cream gapes and orangethroats.The plumage of juvenile birds in their first moult resembles that ofthe adult female, but the head and upperparts are streaked and slightly darker.Soon after fledging, juveniles moult into their first immature plumage, andmore closely resemble the adult female. The breasts of male birds may have someorange feathers. Birds in their second year moult into a second immature phase,some males of which may resemble adult males, while others retain a moreimmature brown plumage. Determining the age and sex of birds in brown plumagecan be very difficult. Information on exact timing of moulting is lacking, butthe replacement of primary feathers takes place over the summer months betweenDecember and February.
The colour aloneis 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 breastplumage extends right up to the base of the bill. It is also a little slimmerand has a smaller head than the Scarlet Robin, and is clearly larger than theRed-capped. Females of the respective species are harder to tell apart. Thoseof Red-capped, Rose and Pink Robins are all smaller, with wing lengths lessthan 7 cm (2.8 in), smaller than the smallest Flame Robin. The female ScarletRobin has a more pronounced red flush to the breast and the spot on the crownabove the bill is more prominent and white rather than off-white.
The Flame Robin'scalls are grouped into louder and quieter calls; the former can be heard from150 m (500 ft) away, the latter, which are often briefer, from 30 m (100 ft).Loud songs make up almost 90% of calls in spring, summer and autumn, but lessthan 50% of calls from May to July. Males sing rarely during this time,although they do so to defend their territories. Their song is more varied andcomplex than that of the Scarlet Robin, and has been described as the mostmusical of the red robins. A series of descending notes in groups of three, themusical song has been likened to the phrases, "you-may-come, if-you-will,to-the-sea" or "you-are-not a-pretty-little-bird like-me". Bothmales and females sing this song, often perched from a vantage point such as astump or fence. This loud song is used to attract the attention of a potentialmate, and to announce the bringing of food to its mate or young. The softercall has been described as a tlip, terp or pip and is used as a contact call inthe vicinity of the nest. The female makes a hissing sound if approached whileon the nest, and the male has been recorded making a wheezing call whendisplaying around the nest.
Distribution and habitat
The Flame Robin isfound in temperate regions of southeastern Australia and all over Tasmania,although it is less common in the southwest and west. In Victoria, it is morecommon in uplands than lower altitudes. It ranges from the Adelaide and MurrayPlains around the mouth of the Murray River in southeastern South Australia,across Victoria and into the South West Slopes and southern regions of NewSouth Wales. Further north, it is found along the Great Dividing Range and itswestern slopes, with a few records from southeast Queensland. Within its range,it is generally migratory, moving from alpine and subalpine regions to lowlandsin winter, although the breeding and non-breeding ranges overlap. There is someevidence that male birds migrate several days before females. It is unclearwhat proportion of Tasmanian birds cross Bass Strait to winter in Victoria.Birds which remain in Tasmania move away from breeding areas and are found inpaddocks in loose flocks of up to fourteen birds. They have left these areas byAugust, and immature birds appear to disperse earlier. A field study in theouter Melbourne suburb of Langwarrin showed that climate did not influence peakabundance of Flame Robins there. The international organization BirdLifeInternational has regraded it from Least Concern to Near Threatened in 2004 dueto its population decline over the previous 25 years. The Australian Governmenthad classified it as Least Concern, but noted evidence of decline at the edgesof its non-breeding range; it has become rare in South Australia and Victoria.Flame robins are not rare in Victoria. They are frequently encountered at highelevations on the Great Dividing Range, especially in sparser snow gum woodlandand similar habitat, and during the summer breeding season are one of the mostreliably observed species around the summit of Mount Macedon, NW of Melbourne.In spring andsummer, the Flame Robin is more often found in wet eucalypt forest in hilly ormountainous areas, particularly the tops and slopes, to an elevation of 1800 m(6000 ft). 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 theautumn and winter, birds move to more open areas such as grasslands and openwoodlands, such as those containing river red gum (E. camaldulensis), Blakely'sred gum (E. blakelyi), yellow box (E. melliodora), grey box (E. microcarpa),and mugga ironbark (E. sideroxylon), at lower altitude.
Flame Robins oftenbecome more abundant in areas recently burnt by bushfires, but move away oncethe undergrowth regrows. They may also move into logged or cleared areas inforests. However, a field study in the Boola Boola State Forest in centralGippsland revealed they are not found in areas where the regrowth after loggingis dense.
Behaviour
The Flame Robinmostly breeds in and around the Great Dividing Range, the Tasmanian highlandsand islands in Bass Strait. With the coming of cooler autumn weather, mostbirds disperse to lower and warmer areas, some travelling as far as easternSouth Australia, southern Queensland, or (in the case of some Tasmanian birds)across Bass Strait to Victoria. Birds breeding in the warmer climates north ofthe Blue Mountains in New South Wales tend to retain their highland territoriesall year round. Outside the breeding season, birds may congregate in looseflocks, but they are most usually encountered throughout the year singly or inpairs, the latter more commonly in breeding season.When perched orbetween bouts of foraging on the ground, the Flame Robin holds itself in arelatively upright pose, with its body angled at 45° or less from the vertical,and its wings held low below its tail. It impresses as nervous and twitchy,flicking its wings alternately when still. The Flame Robin's flight is fast,with a markedly undulating character.
The Flame Robin isterritorial, defending its territory against other members of its species andalso Scarlet Robins where they co-occur. In Nimmitabel in southern New SouthWales, migratory Flame Robins invaded and eked out their territories from amidexisting Scarlet Robin territories. Once settled, however, no species dominatedover the other and stable boundaries emerged. The Flame Robin deploys a numberof agonistic displays, including a breast-puffing display where it puffs itsbreast feathers and a white spot display where it puffs its feathers toaccentuate its frontal white crown, white wing markings or white outer tailfeathers. They may also fly at intruders or sing to defend their territory.
Feeding
Like allAustralasian robins, the Flame Robin is a perch and pounce hunter, mainlyeating insects, and often returning to a favourite low perch several times tostand erect and motionless, scanning the leaf-litter for more prey. They aretypically seen in pairs (during the spring and summer breeding season) or inloose companies in more open country in winter, when they more commonly feed onthe ground. A field study in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales foundno significant difference in foraging behaviour between male and female FlameRobins. Birds have been recorded foraging for insects in furrows in freshlyploughed fields. In Deniliquin, a Flame Robin was observed holding one footforward and pattering the ground repeatedly to disturb ground-dwelling insects,and then watching and snapping up any which emerged; this behaviour isotherwise seen in waders.Compared with theScarlet Robin, the Flame Robin eats a higher proportion of flying insects.Biologist Doug Robinson has proposed that scarcity of flying insects in winteris a reason why the Flame Robin migrates. They have been seen in mixed-speciesflocks with other small insectivorous passerines, such as Scarlet Robins,Hooded Robins (Melanodryas cucullata), White-fronted Chats (Epthianuraalbifrons), and Australasian Pipits (Anthus novaeseelandiae).
Among the types ofinsects consumed are many families of beetles, wasps and ants, flies (familiesTabanidae and Asilidae), bugs, and caterpillars. Other invertebrates eateninclude spiders, millipedes and earthworms. The Flame Robin consumes small preyitems whole, and bashes larger victims against a hard surface repeatedly tobreak up before eating. The latter group constitute only 0.5% of prey overtime—seasonally varying from a peak of 1.8% in autumn to a low of 0.2% of preycaught in winter.[37
Courtship and breeding
Several courtshipbehaviours have been recorded. Males have been recorded feeding females. A maleFlame Robin either lands next to and moves a female off her perch, or flies infront of her. Courting males also run to and fro in front of a female, in acrouch with wings and head lowered and hiding their breast feathers. In bothdisplays, the male proceeds to chase the female. Pairs are generallymonogamous, and remain together unless one bird perishes, although"divorces" have been recorded.The breedingseason is August to January with one or two broods raised. The male proposessuitable nest sites to the female by hopping around the area. Unlike otherrobins, the female sometimes initiates the site selection. A pair spendsanywhere from one to five days looking before finding a suitable site. The femaleconstructs the nest alone. Eucalypts are generally chosen, but birds have beenrecorded nesting in Pinus radiata on Mount Wellington in Tasmania. The FlameRobin is more versatile in its selection of nesting sites than other robins,and has even been recorded nesting in sheds.
The nest is a neatdeep cup made of soft dry grass, moss and bark. Spider webs, feathers and furare used for binding/filling, generally in a tree fork or crevice, or cliff orriverbank ledge, typically within a few metres of the ground. The clutchgenerally numbers three or four dull white eggs, which are laid on consecutivedays. They are tinted bluish, greyish or brownish and splotched with darkgrey-brown, and measure 18 mm x 14 mm. A field study in open eucalypt forest atNimmitabel found that Flame Robins and Scarlet Robins chose different sites tobreed, the former in tree hollows and bark crevices, most commonly ofEucalyptus viminalis around 4 m (13 ft) off the ground, and the latter morecommonly in forks or on branches of E. pauciflora around 7 m (25 ft) above theground. Flame Robins, which were migratory at the site, were more successful inraising young, but the success rate of Scarlet Robins in the area appeared tobe poor compared with other sites.
Incubation hasbeen recorded as averaging around 17 days. Like all passerines, the chicks arealtricial; they are born blind and naked, and start to develop down on theirheads on day two. Their eyes open around day six, and they begin developingtheir primary flight feathers around day nine or ten. For the first three daysafter hatching, the mother feeds the nestlings alone, with food brought to herby the father. The father feeds them directly from the fourth day onwards, withthe mother brooding them afterwards until day seven. Flies, butterflies, moths,caterpillars and beetles predominate in the food fed to young birds. FlameRobins fed a higher proportion of flying insects to their young at Nimmitabelthan did Scarlet Robins, which may have been due to their later start tobreeding. Both parents participate in removing faecal sacs from the nest.Parents have been observed feeding young up to five weeks after leaving thenest.
The Fan-tailedCuckoo (Cacomantis flabelliformis) and Pallid Cuckoo (C. pallidus) have beenrecorded as brood parasites of the Flame Robin; female cuckoos lay their eggsin robin nests, which are then raised by the robins as their own. OneFan-tailed Cuckoo was recorded ejecting baby robins before being raised by itsfoster parents. Other nest predators recorded include the Grey Shrikethrush(Colluricincla harmonica), Pied Currawong (Strepera graculina), and EasternBrown Snake
