Habits
Singly or in pairs. Occasionally in small family parties.
Food
Insects.
Voice
A persistent, leisurely, ringing 'pee, pee, pee' or 'bink, bink, bink, bink, brr' with an irregular break. Also scrubwren-like chattering and chirping.
Grey-headed Robin (Heteromyias cinereifrons) [XC845699]
by Patrik \u00c5berg from Paluma, Townsville City, Queensland, Australia (call)
Grey-headed Robin (Heteromyias cinereifrons) [XC634287]
by nick talbot from Danbulla National Park and State Forest (near Danbulla), Tablelands Regional, Queensland, Australia (call)
Nest
Cup-shaped, composed of fine twigs, rootlets and moss, lined with plant fibers, usually in the upright stem of a lawyer vine, from 2 - 5 meters above the ground, sometimes higher.
Eggs (Guide)
1 or 2; cream-buff to pale green marked with brown, particularly in a zone at the larger end; rounded-oval; about 26 x 19 mm. Incubation: 17 - 19 days; by female only.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in 11 - 14 days.
Subspecies
No subspecies.
Ashy Robin (Heteromyias albispecularis) and Grey-headed Robin (Heteromyias cinereifrons) (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) have been lumped into Heteromyias albispecularis following Christidis and Boles (1994).
Heteromyias albispecularis (Christidis and Boles 1994) was again split into Ashy Robin (Heteromyias albispecularis) and Grey-headed Robin (Heteromyias cinereifrons) by Christidis and Boles (2008) but this treatment is not followed by the BirdLife Taxonomic Working Group (BTWG) because the authors overturn Schodde and Mason's (1999) rejection of splitting Australian cinereifrons from New Guinean albispecularis simply on the grounds that another group of birds (the Orthonyx logrunners) have the same distributions but have been split because "external similarities were not good indications of conspecificity". This is not sufficient substantiation for a taxonomic change and the BTWG note that morphological differences are slight.
Sometimes considered conspecific with Ashy Robin (Heteromyias albispecularis).
Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Ashy Robin (Heteromyias albispecularis).
Similar Species
White-browed Robin (Poecilodryas superciliosa) which is smaller, browner above, paler below, has a white eyebrow and white tips on the tail.
References
See References.
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