Habitat
Forest, woodlands, scrubs from sea level to about 1800 m during Summer. Open woodlands, plains paddocks, golfcourses, orchards, parks during Fall and Winter.
From south-eastern Queensland through south-eastern Australia to south-eastern South Australia, Kangaroo Island, the islands of Bass Strait, and Tasmania.
Rarity Status
Currently this species is not classified as a rarity in this country OR information has not been updated.
Population
Estimated population is 1,000,000 (2010) and decreasing.
Status NT
Destruction of its winter habitat through clearing, cultivation and degradation appears to be the main threat. Breeding habitat is managed and as a result has increased, but reduction in clear-felling may result in loss of habitat in the future.
Habits
Usually in pairs in spring-summer, but at loose foraging flocks in fall-winter.
Food
Insects.
Voice
Call: Faint, thin, repeated piping or subdued tickling, by both sexes. Song: Sweet, lilting up-and-down cadence of about nine whistled notes, in triplets, by male.
Nest
Cup-shaped, composed of strips of soft bark, grasses and rootlets, coated with mosses and cobweb and lined with fur or plant-down. Built in a tree fork, between projecting piece of bark and the side of a tree, in a burnt-out tree-trunk or hollow log, or in a crevice of a rocky embankment. Occasionally on a refter in a shed.
Eggs (Guide)
3 or 4; pale blue to pale green, spotted and blotched with brown and purple-grey; rounded-oval; about 18 x 14 mm. Incubation: 14 days; by female.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in about 14 - 20 days. Fed by both parents.
Subspecies
No subspecies.
Similar Species
Scarlet Robin (Petroica boodang), male, has a larger white forehead-mark, and the red under parts begins lower down on the breast; female, which has a larger white forehead patch, and a pale red 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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BirdLife International Species Factsheet