The mangrove robin (''Peneothello pulverulenta'') is a

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

bird in the family

Petroicidae The bird family Petroicidae includes 51 species in 19 genera. All are endemic to Australasia: New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand and numerous Pacific Islands as far east as Samoa. For want of an accurate common name, the family is often called th ...

. It is found in the

Aru Islands Aru or ARU may refer to: Education * Alpha Rho Upsilon, a defunct fraternity in the United States * Anglia Ruskin University, a university in England * Ardhi University, a Tanzanian public university Places * Aru Islands Regency, a group of i ...

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

, and northern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. The bird's common name refers to its

natural habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

. They live in mangrove forests and seldom fly outside these

biome A biome () is a distinct geographical region with specific climate, vegetation, and animal life. It consists of a biological community that has formed in response to its physical environment and regional climate. In 1935, Tansley added the ...

Taxonomy

The mangrove robin was described by the French naturalist

Charles Lucien Bonaparte Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte, 2nd Prince of Canino and Musignano (24 May 1803 – 29 July 1857) was a French naturalist and ornithology, ornithologist, and a nephew of Napoleon. Lucien and his wife had twelve children, including Cardinal ...

in 1850 from a specimen collected in

. He coined the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

''Myiolestes pulverulentus''. The species was subsequently moved to the genus ''Peneoenanthe'' by the Australian ornithologist

Gregory Mathews Gregory Macalister Mathews CBE FRSE FZS FLS (10 September 1876 – 27 March 1949) was an Australian-born amateur ornithologist who spent most of his later life in England. Life He was born in Biamble in New South Wales the son of Robert H. M ...

. It is now placed in the genus ''

Peneothello ''Peneothello'' is a genus of passerine birds in the Australasian robin family Petroicidae. The genus ''Peneothello'' was introduced by the Australian born ornithologist Gregory Mathews in 1920 with white-winged robin (''Peneothello sigillata'') ...

'', based on the results of a

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study of the family

, published in 2011. There are four

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

. * ''P. p. pulverulenta'' ( Bonaparte, 1850) – coastal New Guinea * ''P. p. leucura'' ( Gould, 1869) –

(south west of New Guinea), northeast coast of Australia * ''P. p. alligator'' ( Mathews, 1912) – coastal northern Australia and nearby islands * ''P. p. cinereiceps'' (

Hartert Ernst Johann Otto Hartert (29 October 1859 – 11 November 1933) was a widely published German people, German ornithologist. Life and career Hartert was born in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg on 29 October 1859. In July 1891, he married ...

, 1905) – northwest coast of Australia

Description

The mangrove robin has an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

weight In science and engineering, the weight of an object is a quantity associated with the gravitational force exerted on the object by other objects in its environment, although there is some variation and debate as to the exact definition. Some sta ...

of for males and for females. Their

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

differs between subspecies – the ''leucura'' subspecies have spans of to for males and to for females, while the ''alligator'' subspecies have spans of to for males and to for females. For ''cinereiceps'', male birds have wingspans of to long; on the other hand, female wingspans are to long. They feature a "dull pale bar" at the bottom of their

remiges Flight feathers (''Pennae volatus'') are the long, stiff, asymmetrically shaped, but symmetrically paired pennaceous feathers on the wings or tail of a bird; those on the wings are called remiges (), singular remex (), while those on the ta ...

, although this is not very noticeable. In order to facilitate their navigation through thick mangrove forests, mangrove robins have developed wings and tails that are rounded.

Distribution and habitat

The bird is found in the

Northern Australia The unofficial geographic term Northern Australia includes those parts of Queensland and Western Australia north of latitude 26th parallel south, 26° and all of the Northern Territory. Those local government areas of Western Australia and Q ...

region and the island of

, within the countries of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

, and

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. Their preferred habitat are tropical and subtropical mangrove forests located above the level of

high tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ...

. They seldom travel outside their habitat. The mangrove robin has been placed in the

least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

category of the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

, as the population has remained stable throughout the last ten years. The size of its distribution range is over .

Behaviour

The

call Call or Calls may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Games * Call (poker), a bet matching an opponent's * Call, in the game of contract bridge, a bid, pass, double, or redouble in the bidding stage Music and dance * Call (band), from L ...

of the mangrove robin has been described as a "down-slurred whistle". It eats insects in the mud when the tide falls. While these may be its primary prey, the mangrove robin also consumes a significant amount of

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura (meaning "short tailed" in Greek language, Greek), which typically have a very short projecting tail-like abdomen#Arthropoda, abdomen, usually hidden entirely under the Thorax (arthropo ...

in its diet.

References

External links

Xeno-canto: audio recordings of the mangrove robin
{{Taxonbar, from=Q692554 mangrove robin mangrove robin Birds of the Aru Islands Birds of Western Australia Birds of the Northern Territory Birds of Queensland mangrove robin mangrove robin Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN Birds of New Guinea