Petroicidae
Encyclopedia
The bird
family
Petroicidae includes roughly 45 species in about 15 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 the Australasian robins. Within the family the species are known not only as robins but as scrub-robins and flycatchers. They are, however, only distantly related to the Old World
family Muscicapidae (to which other species with such names belong) and the monarch flycatchers (Monarchidae).
Social organisation is usually centered on long-term pair-bonds and small family groups. Some genera practice cooperative breeding
, 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 to the outside of the nest as camouflague, making it very difficult to spot (even when it is in a seemingly prominent location).
, the Petroicidae robins, along with many other insect-eating birds, were classified as flycatchers in a huge family Muscicapidae, before being placed in their own family or with the whistler family Pachycephalidae
.
The relationship of the Petroicidae to other bird families is uncertain; Sibley and Alquist
's DNA-DNA hybridisation
studies had placed them in the Corvoidea (a huge group that includes the shrike
s, crow
s and jay
s, butcherbird
s, woodswallow
s, drongo
s, cuckoo-shrike
, fantail
s, monarch flycatchers and many others).
In a more recent genetic study, they and several other families came out quite differently. They seem to form a distinct lineage of uncertain relationships, possibly as an early offshoot of Passerida
diverging some 44 million years ago. However, all that can be said at present with reasonable certainty is that they are neither core Passerida ("advanced" songbirds) nor a very ancient songbird group.
Acknowledging their position is unclear, current consensus places them as basal Passerida.
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.
FAMILY: PETROICIDAE
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
Petroicidae includes roughly 45 species in about 15 genera. All are endemic to Australasia
Australasia
Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...
: New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand and numerous Pacific Islands as far east as Samoa
Samoa
Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...
. For want of an accurate common name, the family is often called the Australasian robins. Within the family the species are known not only as robins but as scrub-robins and flycatchers. They are, however, only distantly related to the Old World
Old World
The Old World consists of those parts of the world known to classical antiquity and the European Middle Ages. It is used in the context of, and contrast with, the "New World" ....
family Muscicapidae (to which other species with such names belong) and the monarch flycatchers (Monarchidae).
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. Some genera practice cooperative breeding
Cooperative breeding
Cooperative breeding is a social system in which individuals contribute care to offspring that are not their own at the expense of their own reproduction . When reproduction is monopolized by one or few of the adult group members and most adults do not reproduce, but help rear the breeder’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 to the outside of the nest as camouflague, making it very difficult to spot (even when it is in a seemingly prominent location).
Systematics
Although named after true robinsEuropean Robin
The European Robin , most commonly known in Anglophone Europe simply as the Robin, is a small insectivorous passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family , but is now considered to be an Old World flycatcher...
, the Petroicidae robins, along with many other insect-eating birds, were classified as flycatchers in a huge family Muscicapidae, before being placed in their own family or with the whistler 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...
.
The relationship of the Petroicidae to other bird families is uncertain; Sibley and Alquist
Charles Sibley
Charles Gald Sibley was an American ornithologist and molecular biologist. He had an immense influence on the scientific classification of birds, and the work that Sibley initiated has substantially altered our understanding of the evolutionary history of modern birds.Sibley's taxonomy has been a...
's DNA-DNA hybridisation
DNA-DNA hybridisation
DNA-DNA hybridization generally refers to a molecular biology technique that measures the degree of genetic similarity between pools of DNA sequences. It is usually used to determine the genetic distance between two species...
studies had placed them in the Corvoidea (a huge group that includes the shrike
Shrike
Shrikes are passerine birds of the family Laniidae. The family is composed of thirty-one species in three genera. The family name, and that of the largest genus, Lanius, is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes were also known as "butcher birds" because of their feeding habits...
s, crow
Crow
Crows form the genus Corvus in the family Corvidae. Ranging in size from the relatively small pigeon-size jackdaws to the Common Raven of the Holarctic region and Thick-billed Raven of the highlands of Ethiopia, the 40 or so members of this genus occur on all temperate continents and several...
s and jay
Jay
The jays are several species of medium-sized, usually colorful and noisy, passerine birds in the crow family Corvidae. The names jay and magpie are somewhat interchangeable, and the evolutionary relationships are rather complex...
s, butcherbird
Butcherbird
Butcherbirds are magpie-like birds in the genus Cracticus. They are native to Australasia. Their closest relatives are the three species of currawong...
s, woodswallow
Woodswallow
Woodswallows are soft-plumaged, somber-coloured passerine birds. There is a single genus, Artamus, The woodswallows are either treated as a subfamily, Artaminae in an expanded family Artamidae, which includes the butcherbirds and Australian Magpie, or as the only genus in that family...
s, drongo
Drongo
The drongos are a family of small passerine birds of the Old World tropics, the Dicruridae. This family was sometimes much enlarged to include a number of largely Australasian groups, such as the Australasian fantails, monarchs and paradise flycatchers...
s, cuckoo-shrike
Cuckoo-shrike
The cuckooshrikes and allies in the Campephagidae family are small to medium-sized passerine bird species found in the subtropical and tropical Africa, Asia and Australasia...
, fantail
Fantail
Fantails are small insectivorous birds of southern Asia and Australasia belonging to the genus Rhipidura in the family Rhipiduridae...
s, monarch flycatchers and many others).
In a more recent genetic study, they and several other families came out quite differently. They seem to form a distinct lineage of uncertain relationships, possibly as an early offshoot of Passerida
Passerida
Passerida is under the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, one of two "parvorders" contained within the suborder Passeri...
diverging some 44 million years ago. However, all that can be said at present with reasonable certainty is that they are neither core Passerida ("advanced" songbirds) nor a very ancient songbird group.
Acknowledging their position is unclear, current consensus places them as basal Passerida.
Classification
A comprehensive review, including an analysis of the osteological characters, by SchoddeRichard Schodde
Richard Schodde, OAM is an Australian botanist and ornithologist.Schodde studied at the University of Adelaide where he received a BSc in 1960 and a PhD in 1970. During the 1960s he was a botanist with the CSIRO Division of Land Research and Regional Survey in Papua New Guinea...
and Mason
Ian J. Mason
Ian J. Mason is an Australian ornithologist and taxonomist who is Senior Collection Manager for the Australian National Wildlife Collection. He is an authority on oology.-Publications:...
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.
FAMILY: PETROICIDAE
- Subfamily: Drymodinae
- Genus: AmalocichlaAmalocichlaAmalocichla is a genus of bird in the Petroicidae family.It contains the following species:* Greater Ground-robin * Lesser Ground-robin -References:...
- 2 species. - Genus: DrymodesDrymodesDrymodes is a genus of bird in the Petroicidae family.It contains the following species:* Southern Scrub-robin * Northern Scrub-robin -References:...
- 2 species.
- Genus: Amalocichla
- Subfamily: Eopsaltriinae
- Genus: HeteromyiasHeteromyiasHeteromyias is a genus of bird in the Petroicidae family.It contains the following species:* Grey-headed Robin * Ashy Robin...
- 2 species, - Genus: PoecilodryasPoecilodryasPoecilodryas is a genus of bird in the Petroicidae family.It contains the following species:* Black-chinned Robin * Black-sided Robin * Buff-sided Robin...
- 6 species. - Genus: TregellasiaTregellasiaTregellasia is a genus of bird in the Petroicidae family. The genus is found in Australia and New Guinea.It contains the following species:* Pale-yellow Robin * White-faced Robin -References:...
- 2 species. - Genus: EopsaltriaEopsaltriaEopsaltria is a genus of small forest passerines known in Australia as the Yellow Robins. They belong to the Australasian Robin family Petroicidae. The name is derived from the Ancient Greek for "dawn singer/song" because of their dawn chorus. They are inquisitive and bold birds, and have been...
- 3 species. - Genus: Peneoenanthe
- Mangrove RobinMangrove RobinThe Mangrove Robin is a species of bird in the Petroicidae family.-Distribution and habitat:It is found in Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea...
, Peneoenanthe pulverulenta
- Mangrove Robin
- Genus: PeneothelloPeneothelloPeneothello is a genus of bird in the Petroicidae family.-Species:* Peneothello bimaculata — White-rumped Robin* Peneothello cryptoleuca — Smoky Robin* Peneothello cyanus — Slaty Robin...
- 4 species. - Genus: MelanodryasMelanodryasMelanodryas is a genus of bird in the Petroicidae family.It contains the following species:* Hooded Robin * Dusky Robin -References:...
- 2 species.
- Genus: Heteromyias
- Subfamily: Petroicinae
- Genus: PachycephalopsisPachycephalopsisPachycephalopsis is a genus of bird in the Petroicidae family.It contains the following species:* Green-backed Robin * White-eyed Robin -References:...
- 2 species. - Genus: Eugerygone
- Garnet RobinGarnet RobinThe Garnet Robin is a species of bird in the Petroicidae family. It is monotypic within the genus Eugerygone.It is found in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montanes....
, Eugerygone rubra
- Garnet Robin
- Genus: PetroicaPetroicaPetroica is a genus of Australasian robins, named due to their red and pink markings. They are not closely related to the European Robin nor the American robin...
- 11 species. - Genus: MicroecaMicroecaMicroeca is a genus of bird in the Petroicidae family.It contains the following species:* Jacky-winter * Lemon-bellied Flyrobin * Yellow-bellied Flyrobin...
- 7 species. - Genus: Monachella
- Torrent Flyrobin, Monachella muelleriana
- Genus: Pachycephalopsis
External links
- Petroicidae videos on the Internet Bird Collection
- Meliphagoidea - Highlighting relationships of MaluridaeMaluridaeThe Maluridae are a family of small, insectivorous passerine birds endemic to Australia and New Guinea. Commonly known as wrens, they are unrelated to the true wrens of the Northern Hemisphere...
on Tree Of Life Web Project