The banded yellow robin or olive-yellow robin (''Gennaeodryas placens'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

in the Australasian robin 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 ...

that is found in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

. It is the only species in the genus ''Gennaeodryas''. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and 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 ...

s are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical moist

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial ...

. It is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

. It has a high mortality rate due to its inability to traverse across a matrix.

Taxonomy

The banded yellow robin was described by the Australian zoologist,

Edward Pierson Ramsay Edward Pierson Ramsay FRSEFLS LLD (3 December 1842 – 16 December 1916) was an Australian zoologist who specialised in ornithology. Early life Ramsay was born in Dobroyd Estate, Long Cove, Sydney, and educated at St Mark's Collegiate School, Th ...

, in 1879, from a specimen collected in southeastern

. He coined the binomial name ''Eopsaltria placens''. The species was subsequently placed in the genus ''Poecilodryas''. It was moved to the resurrected genus ''Gennaeodryas'', based on the results of a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2011. The genus ''Gennaeodryas'' had been introduced 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 ...

, in 1920. The genus name combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

''gennaios'' 'noble' or 'high-born' with ''dryad'' 'tree-nymph'. The specific epithet ''placens'' is the Latin word for 'charming' or 'pleasing'.

References

* del Hoyo, J.; Elliot, A. & Christie D. (editors). (2007). '' Handbook of the Birds of the World''. Volume 12: Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. Lynx Edicions. Birds of New Guinea banded yellow robin Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Petroicidae-stub