The jacky winter (''Microeca fascinans'') is a small grey-brown robin found commonly throughout

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and also in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. The jacky winter acquired its name due to rapid and strong vocalisations, which sound like ''jacky-jacky winter-winter''.Simpson, Ken, Day, N. and Trusler, P. (6th edn., 1999). Field Guide to the Birds of Australia. Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin Books Australia . Their call is also often referred to as sounding like ''peter-peter-peter''.Slater, Peter (1974) A Field Guide to Australian Birds: Passerines. Adelaide: Rigby. Its habitats include open woodlands and farmlands.

Taxonomy and distribution

The jacky winter belongs to the family of

Australasia Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologica ...

n robins and flycatchers ''

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 ...

''. This family includes around 49 species in around 19 genera that are all endemic to

. The family ''

'' evolved in a similar way to the Australo-Papuan warblers (''

Acanthizidae The Acanthizidae—known as Australian warblers—are a family of passerine birds which includes gerygones, the thornbills '' Acanthiza'', and the scrubwrens of '' Sericornis''. The Acanthizidae family consists of small to medium passerine birds, ...

'')—the latter evolved in isolation from similar families to them, namely ''

Parulidae The New World warblers or wood-warblers are a group of small, often colorful, passerine birds that make up the family Parulidae and are restricted to the New World. They are not closely related to Old World warblers or Australian warblers. Most ...

'' and ''

Sylviidae Sylviidae is a family of passerine birds that includes the typical warblers and a number of babblers formerly placed within the Old World babbler family. They are found in Eurasia and Africa. Taxonomy and systematics The scientific name Sylviid ...

'', which occupied comparable niches in other continental regions, such as

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

/South America and

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...

, respectively. ''

'' evolved in the Australo-Papuan area to fill an ecological niche, which was already being used by New World flycatchers (''

Tyrannidae The tyrant flycatchers (Tyrannidae) are a family of passerine birds which occur throughout North and South America. They are considered the largest family of birds known to exist in the world, with more than 400 species. They are the most dive ...

'') in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

, and by Old World flycatchers (''

Muscicapidae The Old World flycatchers are a large family, the Muscicapidae, of small passerine birds restricted to the Old World (Europe, Africa and Asia), with the exception of several vagrants and two species, Bluethroat (''Luscinia svecica)'' and Norther ...

'') in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

. This is an example of

convergent evolution Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last com ...

.Christidis, L., Irestedt, M., Rowe, D., Boles, W. E. and Norman, J. A. 2011
Mitochondrial and nuclear DNA phylogenies reveal a complex evolutionary history in the Australasian robin (Passeriformes: Petroicidae).
– Mol. Phyl. Evol. 61: 726–738. The generic name ''Microeca'' derives from the Greek ''micros'' meaning 'small' and ''oikos'' meaning 'house'. This refers to the fact that they build the smallest nest of any Australian bird. The specific name ''fascinans'' is Latin for 'fascinating' and derives from ''fascinare'' meaning 'to bewitch'. Other vernacular names for the jacky winter are brown flycatcher, peter peter, postboy, spinks and stumpbird. There are three races of jacky winter found in

. ''Microeca fascinans fascinans'' (''leucophaea'') is the most familiar race, and is found in central and eastern

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, and southeastern

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. There are also ''Microeca fascinans assimilis'', which is found in

and south

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

, and ''Microeca fascinans pallida'', which is found in northern and western

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

, and the

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia * Kimberley (Western Australia) ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley * Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania * Kimberley, Tasmania a small town * County of Kimberley, a ...

in Western Australia.Reid, J. R. W. and Gillen, J. S. 2013
Riparian bird assembladges of Cooper Creek, South Australia
– South Australian Arid Lands Natural Resources Management Board. ''Microeca fascinans zimmeri'' is a subspecies of jacky winter found in Papua New Guinea

Description

The jacky winter is around 12 – 14 cm in length (including the tail) and its weight varies from 14 – 18 g.Wood, K. A, Thompson, N. and Ley, A. J. 2008
Breeding Territories and Breeding Success of the Jacky Winter Microeca fasinans in South-eastern Queensland
– Australian Field Ornithology 25: 121–131. The plumage of ''M. f. fascinans'' includes a greyish breast with white on the bottom half, its head and back is greyish-brown, while its wings are a darker brown with white edges. The bill is black, it has a narrow eye-line and a buff

alula The alula , or bastard wing, (plural ''alulae'') is a small projection on the anterior edge of the wing of modern birds and a few non-avian dinosaurs. The word is Latin and means "winglet"; it is the diminutive of ''ala'', meaning "wing". The al ...

stripe. The tail of ''M. f. fascinans'' is blackish brown with white outer feathers. Its legs are black. Subspecies ''M. f. assimilis'' is very similar to ''M. f. fascinans''; however, it is darker, with more grey over the breast and flanks, covering up the white which is seen on ''M. f. fascinans''. ''M. f. pallida'' is smaller than the other two subspecies, being only around 13 cm. ''M. f. pallida'' is much more pallid than the other subspecies, and is usually a sandy brown colour.

Behaviour

The jacky winter can be heard vocalising before sunrise and usually stops towards the middle of the day. Occasionally closer to sunset, it can be heard again.Keast, A. 1994
The Annual Cycle in a Vocalisation Context: a Comparison of the Eastern Yellow Robin Eopsaltria australis and the Jacky Winter Microeca leucophaea.
– Emu 94: 230–238. During the day they can be seen perched atop trees and posts,

preening Preening is a found in birds that involves the use of the beak to position feathers, interlock feather that have become separated, clean plumage, and keep ectoparasites in check. Feathers contribute significantly to a bird's insulation, waterp ...

their

feathers Feathers are epidermal growths that form a distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on both avian (bird) and some non-avian dinosaurs and other archosaurs. They are the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates and a premier e ...

or even sunning to kill the

parasites Parasitism is a Symbiosis, close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the Host (biology), host, causing it some harm, and is Adaptation, adapted structurally to this way of lif ...

, which may be present in amongst the feathers.

Diet

The jacky winter is an

insectivore A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores wer ...

and a sit-and-search

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

, which moves amongst perches to locate food. This is a continuous activity that can cover long distances in order to find prey items. The jacky winter has two methods of hunting, which include hawking and ground-pouncing. Hawking is when a bird flies and drops to the ground, grabbing their prey during flight, while ground-pouncing is when they fly from a perch, grabbing prey as they land.Miller, J. R. and Cale, P. 2000
Behavioural mechanisms and habitat use by birds in a fragmented agricultural landscape
– Ecological Application. 10: 1732–1748. Both of these hunting styles are used quite commonly by the jacky winter.Recher, H. F. and Davis Jr, W. E. 2002
Foraging profile of a Salmon Gum woodland avifauna in Western Australia.
– Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia. 85: 103–111.

Reproduction

In many species of birds, the male plumage is quite bright and flamboyant to attract the opposite sex in hope of finding a partner to mate with. The jacky winter is instead a sexually monomorphic bird, which means that both the male and female are almost identical in appearance. Rather than plumage playing a significant role in attracting the opposite sex, the jacky winter male uses song to attract a female during courtship. In the eastern states of Australia, the jacky winter breeds mostly to the west of the Great Dividing Range, where a suitable habitat of eucalyptus woodland is present. They build a small, open cup-shaped

nest A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of organic materia ...

, which is often made from grass and bark strips held together by spider webs. The nest is built in an exposed position, usually on a fork of a branch. The breeding season of jacky winters occurs from September to November. Leading up to September, singing from the males is at its highest peak, then as the

nestlings 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 lightweight s ...

are born around late September, the singing becomes quite minimal. In late October, the singing increases again, lasting until early November, when the females lay a second

brood Brood may refer to: Nature * Brood, a collective term for offspring * Brooding, the incubation of bird eggs by their parents * Bee brood, the young of a beehive * Individual broods of North American Periodical Cicadas: ** Brood X, the largest bro ...

of the season. By late November with the hatching of the young, the males stop singing, making vocalisations almost non-existent from then on. It stays like this until the birds have left the area. The nesting period lasts for 15 to 20 days, while the incubation is between 16 and 18 days. Only the female will incubate the eggs, while the male will help feed the young once they have hatched. 92 per cent of the time, the female will lay only two eggs per clutch. It is uncommon for this number to vary, since many different

environmental A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

factors determine the number of eggs per clutch in order to maximize the survival rate of fledglings from the nest. Territory size of the jacky winter has been recorded at 1.7 ha, which is similar to other species of ''

'', such as the

flame robin The flame robin (''Petroica phoenicea'') is a small passerine bird native to Australia. It is a moderately common resident of the coolest parts of south-eastern Australia, including Tasmania. Like the other two red-breasted ''Petroica'' robins&md ...

and

scarlet robin The scarlet robin (''Petroica boodang'') is a common red-breasted Australasian robin in the passerine bird genus ''Petroica''. The species is found on continental Australia and its offshore islands, including Tasmania. The species was originall ...

. The jacky winter seems to favour habitats for breeding that contain a

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...

box woodland or open box woodland, which have patches of box trees and isolated live trees. Fallen logs and stumps are also favoured in habitat selection. The jacky winter holds these territories by perching on top of these eucalyptus trees and keeping a regular sustained call. The breeding density of jacky winters is about 17.2 ha for one pair. The jacky winter is known to defend their territory all year around.

Status

The jacky winter is a common species of bird found throughout

, and is described as a bird of

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

by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

(International Union for Conservation of Nature). Like many other small woodland birds in

, the jacky winter populations are declining and are considered to be a common species but decreasing.Reid, J. R. W. 1999
Threatened and declining birds in the New South Wales Sheep-Wheat Belt: I. Diagnosis, characteristics and management
Consultancy report to the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. – CSIRO Wildlife and Ecology. All subspecies of the jacky winter in

are declining. ''M. f. fascinans'' is declining throughout

eastern Australia The eastern states of Australia are the states adjoining the east continental coastline of Australia. These are the mainland states of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, and the island state of Tasmania. The Australian Capital Territory ...

, including

and

; ''M. f. assimilis'' is declining throughout

and parts of

; ''M. f. pallida'' is declining throughout parts of

, the

, as well as the

in Western Australia.

Threats

A number of species of woodland birds, such as the jacky winter, are declining and going locally

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

, due to the fragmentation and

degradation Degradation may refer to: Science * Degradation (geology), lowering of a fluvial surface by erosion * Degradation (telecommunications), of an electronic signal * Biodegradation of organic substances by living organisms * Environmental degradation ...

of their habitats. These deleterious changes are not only happening in

, but around the world.Ford, H. A. 2011
The causes of decline of birds of eucalypt woodlands: advances in our knowledge over the last 10 years
– Emu 111: 1–9. Since

an settlement in

, much of the woodlands have been converted to

arable land Arable land (from the la, arabilis, "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for the ...

and

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or swine ...

, for crops to grow and for livestock to graze. Grazing livestock has impacted the jacky winter by decreasing the amount of small, ground and shrub vegetation, creating a lot of bare ground. This bare ground disadvantages the ground-pouncing jacky winter because a decrease in the larger terrestrial arthropods that they feed upon occurs.Recher, H. F., Davis, W. E. and Calver, M. C. 2002
Comparative foraging ecology of five species of ground-pouncing birds in western Australian woodlands with comments on species decline.
– Ornithol. Sci. 1: 29–40. The increase of bare ground, created by woodland fragmentation and degradation, can also cause nesting resources of the jacky winter to become scarce due to the increase of weeds in the area. This results in the jacky winter having to try to find another suitable habitat.Keast, A. 1995
Habitat loss and species loss: the birds of Sydney 50 years ago and now.
– Aust. Zool. 30: 3–25. Finding suitable habitats has become quite difficult for the jacky winter as other birds thrive in these landscapes. The

noisy miner The noisy miner (''Manorina melanocephala'') is a bird in the honeyeater family, Meliphagidae, and is endemic to eastern and southeastern Australia. This miner is a grey bird, with a black head, orange-yellow beak and feet, a distinctive yellow ...

(''Manorina melanocephala'') is a winner of these human-altered landscapes, and is quite aggressive towards other small

insectivores A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores wer ...

, such as the jacky winter. The jacky winter suffers quite negatively from the presence of the noisy miner, as it cannot outcompete it for food resources. The noisy miner has quite a negative impact on tree health, which also limits the availability of suitable nesting material for the jacky winter.

Climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

also threatens to cause the jacky winter to decline even further. A changing climate caused by

anthropogenic Anthropogenic ("human" + "generating") is an adjective that may refer to: * Anthropogeny, the study of the origins of humanity Counterintuitively, anthropogenic may also refer to things that have been generated by humans, as follows: * Human im ...

sources has already been determined to affect the breeding activity, the timing of

migration Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration * Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another ** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...

, and also the

geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

and elevation range of birds quite significantly. These effects are seen all over the world on a number of different species.Mac Nally, R., Bennett, A. F., Thomson, J. R., Radford, J. Q., Unmack, G., Horrocks, G. and Vesk, P. A. 2009
Collapse of an avifauna: climate change appears to exacerbate habitat loss and degradation
– Diversity Distrib. 15: 720–730. . What threatens the jacky winter in Australia is rising temperature and evapotranspiration, causing more droughts and increasing fire severity and frequency. It is expected that these will impact the availability of food, as well as safe nesting sites and refuges from predators. The rising temperature has already caused birds around the world to decrease in body size. This has been interpreted as a micro-evolutionary response to global climate warming, and to the changes in nutrition associated with declining food availability and habitat quality, which the jacky winter is undergoing in southeastern Australia.Gardner, J. L., Heinsohn, R. and Joseph, L. 2009
Shifting latitudinal clines in avian body size correlate with global warming in Australian passerines
– Proc. R. Soc. B – 1–8.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1033170

jacky winter The jacky winter (''Microeca fascinans'') is a small grey-brown robin found commonly throughout Australia and also in Papua New Guinea. The jacky winter acquired its name due to rapid and strong vocalisations, which sound like ''jacky-jacky wint ...

Birds of Australia

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