Flame Robin (Petroica phoenicea)

The flame robin (Petroica phoenicea) is a bird endemic to south-eastern Australia, named for the bright orange breast and throat of the adult male of the species. However, it is not closely related to the European or American robins. It was formerly known as the flame-breasted robin, with the current vernacular name an abbreviation of this, but has also been known as bank robin, redhead, and incorrectly as the robin redbreast.

Flame robins eat beetles, wasps, ants, flies, bugs, caterpillars, spiders, millipedes and earthworms. They watch from low perches and then seize their prey from the ground, taking it to a perch to be eaten. They can also catch insects in the air. Found alone, in pairs, or in flocks of forty or more birds, when not breeding they are known to join mixed feeding flocks consisting of several species of insectivorous birds.

The flame robin is listed as a vulnerable species in New South Wales and South Australia. There are several management strategies in place to address environmental threats.

Background

The flame robin is a small passerine (three toes pointing forward and one back) songbird, between twelve and fourteen centimetres in length. Its loud, complex and varied musical song, can be heard from up to 150 metres away. The song is used to attract a mate, to announce the bringing of food and by the male to defend its territory. The softer call is used around the nest.

Male and female flame robins are dissimilar in appearance (sexually dimorphic) and only the male has the flame-coloured breast and throat. The lower belly and undertail of the male is white, and there is a white stripe on the wing, the bill is black, the legs dark brown and the head dark gray. The male flame robin is frequently confused with the closely related male scarlet robin, Petroica multicolor, which has a black head, although flame robins are larger and slighter in build than the other members of the genus.

Female flame robins are gray-brown with white outer tail feathers and a buff wing stripe. Juvenile flame robins resemble the adult female but have some streaking on the back and belly. Both the females and juveniles appear very similar to several other species.

The flame robin was first described in 1830 by French naturalists Joseph Paul Gaimard and Jean René Constant Quoy, who served aboard the ship Uranie under the command of Louis de Freycinet and on the Astrolabe under Jules Dumont d'Urville. They gave it the name Muscicapa chrysoptera. Muscicapais a genus of flycatching birds found mainly in Europe, Africa and Asia, and chrysoptera is from the Ancient Greek chrysos, meaning "golden," and pteron, meaning "feather." In 1837, well-known ornithologist John Gould placed the flame robin in the genus Petroica, derived from the Ancient Greek petros, meaning "rock," and oikos, meaning "home"—a reference to their habit of perching on rocks—and the name Petroica phoenicea has been used ever since. Phoeniceaderives from the Ancient Greek phoinikes, meaning "red."

The flame robin is classified as class Aves, order Passeriformes, family Petroicidae, genus Petroica, species P. phoenicea.

Overview

Flame robins are found along the south-eastern coast of the Australian mainland, from southern Queensland to just over the eastern South Australian border, and also in Tasmania. They usually live in tall forests of eucalypts, ash, gum and peppermint, and can often be found on ridges and slopes at elevations of up to 1800 metres. They are occasionally found in temperate rainforests, herb fields, heathlands, shrublands, sedgelands and grassy areas such as ovals, golf courses or urban parks.

The understory of the breeding habitat must be fairly clear and consist of predominantly native grasses, and flame robins can often be found in recently burnt areas. As the regeneration of burnt areas occurs, and the vegetation becomes denser, this habitat becomes less suitable. Some flame robins migrate to lower, drier and more open areas in winter, while the Tasmanian robins may fly to the mainland, perhaps due to a scarcity of flying insects at this time.

Flame robins tend to be monogamous, usually remaining together till death. During courtship males will feed females or run back and forth in front of them in a crouched position before chasing them. A pair can spend up to five days locating a suitable nesting site. Flame robins breed in spring to late summer and can lay up to two clutches of three or four spotted green or blue eggs each year. The cup-shaped nest is built by the female from grass, bark, spider web and lichen and is placed about twenty metres above the ground in a tree cavity or hole in a rock face. The male supplies food while the female incubates the eggs for around seventeen days. After hatching, the female feeds the chicks for the first three days, then the male takes over this role, with the parents observed feeding their chicks up to five weeks after leaving the nest.

The flame robin was first listed as near threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species in 2004. It has also been listed as near threatened in the Action Plan for Australian Birds. It is listed as vulnerable in New South Wales under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 (NSW) and in South Australia under the National Parks and Wildlife Act (1972). The habitat of the flame robin is vulnerable to a number of threats, including clearing and degradation, depletion by grazing, firewood collection, dense regeneration after bushfires, habitat fragmentation, reduction of native grasses in favour of exotic varieties, and reduction in canopy cover, fallen branches and leaf litter. Flame robins may also be subject to predation by larger birds, such as pied currawongs, to nest predation by pied currawongs, gray strikethrushes and eastern brown snakes, and to competition for food from noisy miners. They may also have their nests invaded by parasitic fan-tailed and pallid cuckoos, which lay their eggs in the robins' nests for the robins to foster as their own.

Some of the activities undertaken to boost the survival of flame robins include retaining existing forest and grassland vegetation, planting native grasses, leaving dead timber on the ground, limiting stock grazing, strategic burning, planting corridors between fragmented patches of habitat, and avoiding the planting of exotic berries that attract currawongs near flame robin habitats.

Bibliography

"Flame Robin." Birds in Backyards, www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Petroica-phoenicea. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.

"Flame Robin – Profile." NZ Office of Environment & Heritage, www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedSpeciesApp/profile.aspx?id=20129. Accessed on 17 Jan. 2025.

Ramel, Gordon. "Flame Robin." Earth Life, 11 July 2023, earthlife.net/flame-robins/. Accessed 17 Jan. 2024.

Robinson, Doug. "Why Do Flame Robins Petroica Phoenicea Migrate? A Comparison between the Social and Feeding Ecologies of the Flame Robin and Scarlet Robin P. Multicolour." Corella, vol. 16, 1992, pp. 1–14.