Juveniles: Finely streaked or mottled brown and buff-white.
Immatures: Resemble adult female but duller, with little red. Males moult into their red and black plumage in their first fall.
Other Names (World)
Scarlet Robin, Scarlet-breasted Robin, Western Scarlet-breasted Robin, Norfolk Island Robin, White-capped Robin, Robin Redbreast-flycatcher
Habitat
Foothill forest, woodlands, watercourses. In fall-winter, more open habitats, icluding river red gum woodlands, golfcourses, parks, orchards, gardens.
North-eastern Queensland, eastern New South Wales, Victoria, south-eastern South Australia to southern Eye peninsula, kangaroo Island, south-wstern Australia, and Tasmania.
Rarity Status
Currently this species is not classified as a rarity in this country OR information has not been updated.
Nest
Cup-shaped, made of bark strips, mosses and dry grass, bound with cobweb and thickly lined with fur, feathers or plant-down, usually decorated on the outside with small pieces of bark or lichen. Built in a charred stump or in an open fork or hollow spout at almost any height above the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
Usually 3; pale blue, green or grey thickly marked and freckled with purple-grey or brown, often forming a zone at the larger end; swollen-oval; about 18 x 14 mm. Incubation: about 15 - 17 days; by female.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in 15 - 17 days. Fed by both parents.
Subspecies
Forms a species group with Pacific Robin (Petroica multicolor) and New Zealand Tomtit (Petroica macrocephala). Conventionally considered conspecific with Pacific Robin (Petroica multicolor), but differs in plumage (more white on forehead, wing and tail, greyer female), morphology and size. Has been recorded as hybridizing with Red-capped Robin (Petroica goodenovii).
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
boodang (Lesson, 1838) - Breeds south-eastern South Australia (south-eastern from Kangaroo I, Fleurieu) and from south-eastern Queensland south to Victoria. Non-breeding north to Flinders Ranges in west, to about Fraser I (eastern Queensland) in east, and inland towards central New South Wales.
campbelli Sharpe, 1898 - South-western western Australia. Probably southern South Australia (southern Eyre Peninsula).
leggii Sharpe, 1879 - Flinders I and eastern Tasmania.
Similar Species
Flame Robin (Petroica phoenicea), male, which is grey above and the red on the breast begins at the throat; female, which is paler and has a smaller whitish forehead mark and a brown breast.
Compare Images
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
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