The Lord Howe Golden Whistler (Pachycephala pectoralis contempta), also known as the Lord Howe Whistler or Lord Howe Island Golden Whistler, and locally as the “Robin” or “Yellow Robin”, is a small bird in the whistler

Pachycephala

Pachycephala is a genus of birds native to Oceania and Southeast Asia. They are commonly known as typical whistlers. Older guidebooks may refer to them as thickheads, a literal translation of the generic name, which is derived from the Ancient Greek terms pachys "thick" + kephale "head".-Species in...

 family, Pachycephalidae

Pachycephalidae

The family Pachycephalidae, collectively the whistlers, includes the whistlers, shrike-thrushes, shrike-tits, pitohuis and Crested Bellbird, and is part of the ancient Australo-Papuan radiation of songbirds. Its members range from small to medium in size, and occupy most of Australasia...

. It is a subspecies

Subspecies

Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

 of the Australian Golden Whistler ( Pachycephala pectoralis) that is endemic to Lord Howe Island

Lord Howe Island

Lord Howe Island is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, directly east of mainland Port Macquarie, and about from Norfolk Island. The island is about 11 km long and between 2.8 km and 0.6 km wide with an area of...

 in the Tasman Sea

Tasman Sea

The Tasman Sea is the large body of water between Australia and New Zealand, approximately across. It extends 2,800 km from north to south. It is a south-western segment of the South Pacific Ocean. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman, the first recorded European...

, part of New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

Description

Males are similar to those of the nominate subspecies, though with a broader yellow collar. Females differ slightly in having their primary and secondary feathers distinctly washed with cinnamon-brown, a yellowish-grey belly and pale-yellow under-tail coverts.

Distribution and habitat

The whistler is restricted to Lord Howe Island, where it widely distributed through the native subtropical rainforest

Rainforest

Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...

, as well as in remnant native vegetation on roadsides in settled areas.

Breeding

The whistler breeds from September to January. It builds an open cup-shaped nest of palm fibres and vine tendrils, lined with grass, in which it lays a clutch of two eggs.

Feeding

The whistlers eat spiders, insects and insect larvae, foraging through tree branches as well as on the ground in leaf litter.

Status and conservation

The population of the Lord Howe Golden Whistler has been estimated at about 2,000 breeding birds and stable. It has been listed as Vulnerable

Vulnerable species

On 30 January 2010, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species identified 9694 Vulnerable species, subspecies and varieties, stocks and sub-populations.-References:...

by the Australian Government because of its small distribution. It is not listed anymore.

External links

• Threatened species of New South Wales: Lord Howe Island Golden Whistler