Male: Above, sooty. Wings and tail, uniformly tinged brown, with hint of buff bar in wing. Small white forehead spot. Throat, sooty. Breast and belly, magenta or deep pink. Undertail, white. Eye, dark brown. Bill, black. Feet, black-brown. Soles of feet, orange to lemon.
Female: Above, rich brown to greyish-brown. Wings and tail, dark brown, with two incomplete bars in flight feathers. Small buff to white forehead spot. Below, pale brown grading to whitish on belly and undertail. Eye, dark brown. Bill, black. Feet, black-brown. Soles of feet, orange to lemon.
Juveniles: Mottled finely buff-white on brown.
Immatures: Resemble adult female. Wing bars often less pronounced. Pink wash developing on breast.
Habitat
Dense, dank forest, and treefern gullies. Disperses in fall - winter to open forests, woodlands, scrublands. Gardens, plantations, golfcourses.
Habits
During breeding season usually singly or in twos.
Food
Beetles, bugs, and spiders. Feeding is mainly from the ground.
Voice
Call: Low, sharp, monotonous ticking like the snapping of a small twig or clicking of grasshoppers, by both sexes. Short, rasping twitter in alarm or agitation. Song: An upslurred whistle, followed by a tinkling chatter of about six - seven notes repaeted over and over, by male from a vantage perch.
Nest
Cup-shaped, composed of green moss bound with cobweb, lined with fur and down from fronds of tree-ferns, and decorated on the outside with lichen. Usually built into a forked horizontal branch about 1 m from the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
3 or 4; white tinged green, with very small brown and purple-grey freckles, concentrated towards the larger end, in a distinct belt; rounded-oval; about 18 x 14 mm. Incubation: about 13 days; by female.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fed by both parents.
Subspecies
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
rodinogaster (Drapiez, 1819) - Tasmania and islands of Bass Strait, including King Island and Furneaux Group.
inexpectata Mathews, 1912 - Otway, Strzelecki and eastern Gippsland Ranges of southern and eastern Victoria to southern Snowy Mts, NSW. In non-breeding season extending north to Blue Mts, NSW, inland to central Vic., and west to Mt Lofty Ranges, SA.
Similar Species
Rose Robin (Petroica rosea), which has a longer tail, with white underparts and edges. The female often has a pinkish breast and a whitish wingmark.
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