The bird

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Petroicidae includes 51 species in 19 genera. All are endemic to

Australasia Australasia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising Australia, New Zealand (overlapping with Polynesia), and sometimes including New Guinea and surrounding islands (overlapping with Melanesia). The term is used in a number of different context ...

: New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand and numerous Pacific Islands as far east as

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

. For want of an accurate common name, the family is often called the Australasian robins. Within the family species are known variously as robins, scrub-robins and flyrobins. They are only distantly related to the

European robin The European robin (''Erithacus rubecula''), known simply as the robin or robin redbreast in the British Isles, is a small insectivorous passerine bird that belongs to the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. It is found across Europe, ea ...

of Europe, north Africa and western Asia, a member of family

Muscicapidae The Old World flycatchers are a large family, the Muscicapidae, of small passerine birds restricted to the Old World (Europe, Africa and Asia), with the exception of several vagrants and two species, bluethroat (''Luscinia svecica'') and north ...

Characteristics

Most species have a compact build with a large, rounded head, a short, straight bill, and rounded wingtips. They occupy a wide range of wooded habitats, from subalpine to tropical rainforest, and mangrove swamps to semi-arid scrubland. All are primarily insectivorous, although a few supplement their diet with seeds. Hunting is mostly by perch and pounce, a favoured tactic being to cling sideways onto a treetrunk and scan the ground below without moving. Social organisation is usually centered on long-term pair-bonds and small family groups. Most members of the subfamily Eopsaltrinae practice

cooperative breeding Cooperative breeding is a social system characterized by alloparental care: offspring receive care not only from their parents, but also from additional group members, often called helpers. Cooperative breeding encompasses a wide variety of group s ...

, with all family members helping defend a territory and feed nestlings. Nests are cup-shaped, usually constructed by the female, and often placed in a vertical fork of a tree or shrub. Many species are expert at adding moss, bark or

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...

to the outside of the nest as

camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...

, making it very difficult to spot, even when it is in a seemingly prominent location.

Taxonomy and systematics

The Australasian robin family was first introduced in 1888, as a subfamily with the spelling Petroecinae, by the English ornithologist

Alfred Newton Alfred Newton Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS HFRSE (11 June 18297 June 1907) was an England, English zoologist and ornithologist. Newton was Professor of Comparative Anatomy at Cambridge University from 1866 to 1907. Among his numerous public ...

. Although named after true robins, the Australian robins, along with many other insect-eating birds, were originally classified as flycatchers in a huge family

. They were also classified for a time in the whistler family Pachycephalidae, before being placed in their own family Petroicidae, or Eopsaltridae.Boles, p. 35. The family Petroicidae is a member of the

infraorder Order () is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between Family_(biology), family and Class_(biology), class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classific ...

Passerides which also includes the

parvorder Order () is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and recognized ...

s Sylviida, Muscicapida and Passerida. It is most closely related to the families Eupetidae (Rail-babbler), Chaetopidae (Rockjumper) and Picathartidae (Rockfowl).

Classification

A comprehensive review, including an analysis of the osteological characters, by Schodde and Mason in 1999 illustrated three groupings, classified as subfamilies below: Testing of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA revealed some changes, and proposed sinking of ''Tregellasia'' into ''Eopsaltria'' as the white-breasted robin's closest relatives appear to be the two taxa of ''Tregellasia''. The family contains 51 species divided into 19 genera and 6 subfamilies: *Eopsaltriinae ** '' Tregellasia'' (2 species) ** '' Quoyornis'' (monotypic) – white-breasted robin ** '' Eopsaltria'' (2 species) ** '' Gennaeodryas'' (monotypic) – banded yellow robin ** '' Melanodryas'' (2 species) ** '' Peneothello'' (5 species) ** '' Poecilodryas'' (4 species) ** '' Plesiodryas'' (monotypic) – black-throated robin ** '' Heteromyias'' (3 species) *Drymodinae ** ''

Drymodes ''Drymodes'' is a genus of birds in the family Petroicidae. It was traditionally held to have two species, but molecular and behavioural differences led to the split of the New Guinea populations from the northern scrub robin. The paper by Les C ...

'' (3 species) *Microecinae ** '' Microeca'' (3 species) ** '' Monachella'' (monotypic) – torrent flyrobin ** '' Cryptomicroeca'' (monotypic) – yellow-bellied flyrobin ** '' Kempiella'' (2 species) ** '' Devioeca'' (monotypic) – canary flyrobin *Petroicinae ** '' Eugerygone'' (monotypic) – garnet robin ** ''

Petroica ''Petroica'' is a genus of Australasian robins, named for their red and pink markings. They are not closely related to the European robins nor the American robins. The genus was introduced by the English naturalist, William Swainson, in 1829, w ...

'' (14 species) *Pachycephalopsinae ** '' Pachycephalopsis'' (2 species) *Amalocichlinae ** '' Amalocichla'' (2 species)

References

Sources

External links

Petroicidae videos
on the Internet Bird Collection
Meliphagoidea
– Highlighting relationships of

Maluridae The Australasian wrens are a family, Maluridae, of small, insectivorous passerine birds endemic to Australia and New Guinea. While commonly known as wrens, they are unrelated to the true wrens. The family comprises 32 species (including sixteen ...