Flame Robin

BIRD: linking the biodiversity community

Category: Birds

The Flame Robin (Petroica phoenicea) is a moderately common resident of the coolest parts of south-eastern Australia, including Tasmania. Like the other two red-breasted Petroica robins — the Scarlet Robin and the Red-capped Robin — it is often simply but inaccurately called the robin redbreast.

Male Flame Robins are easily distinguished by their bright orange-red throat plumage. The colour alone is not a reliable guide, as some Scarlet Robins take on a orange hue, but while male Scarlet and Red-capped Robins have red breasts and black throats, the Flame Robin's breast plumage extends right up to the base of the bill. It is also a little slimmer and has a smaller head than the Scarlet Robin, and is clearly larger than the Red-capped. The female is plain-coloured: pale brown overall, lighter underneath, with small white marks on wings and over the bill.

Flame Robins mostly breed in and around the Great Dividing Range and on the Tasmanian highlands. With the coming of cooler autumn weather, most birds disperse to lower and warmer areas, some travelling as far as eastern South Australia, southern Queensland, or (in the case of some Tasmanian birds) across Bass Strait to Victoria. Birds breeding in the warmer climates north of the Blue Mountains tend to retain their highland territories all year round.

Like all robins, they are perch and pounce hunters, mainly eating insects, and often returning to a favourite low perch several times to stand erect and motionless, scanning the leaf-litter for more prey. They are typically seen in pairs (during the spring and summer breeding season) or in loose companies in more open country during winter.