基本内容

The Flame Robin(Petroica phoenicea) is a small passerine bird native to Australia. It is amoderately common resident of the coolest parts of south-eastern Australia,including Tasmania. Like the other two red-breasted Petroica robins—the ScarletRobin and the Red-capped Robin—it is often simply but inaccurately called theRobin Redbreast. Like many brightly coloured robins of the Petroicidae, it issexually dimorphic. Measuring 12–14 cm (5–6 in) long, the Flame Robin has darkbrown eyes and a small thin black bill. The male has a brilliant orange-redchest and throat, and a white patch on the forehead above the bill. Its upperparts are iron-grey with white bars, and its tail black with white tips. Thefemale is a nondescript grey-brown. Its song has been described as the mostmusical of its genus.

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).