The black-throated robin (''Plesiodryas albonotata'') is a species of

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

bird in the Australisian 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 ...

. It is found on the island of

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 ...

. 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 ...

is 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 ...

s at 1,150–2,750 metres above sea-level.

Taxonomy

The black-throated robin was described by the Italian zoologist,

Tommaso Salvadori Count Adelardo Tommaso Salvadori Paleotti (30 September 1835 – 9 October 1923) was an Italian zoologist and ornithologist. Biography Salvadori was born in Porto San Giorgio, son of Count Luigi Salvadori and Ethelyn Welby, who was English. His ...

, in 1875, from a specimen collected in the

Arfak Mountains The Arfak Mountains is a mountain range found on the Bird's Head Peninsula in the Province of West Papua, Indonesia. The term "arfak" came from the language of the coastal Biak people, meaning "inferior." This is due to how big the mountains ar ...

on the island of

. He coined the binomial name ''Megalestes albonotatus''. It was moved to the genus '' Poecilodryas'' by the English zoologist,

Richard Bowdler Sharpe Richard Bowdler Sharpe (22 November 1847 – 25 December 1909) was an English zoologist and ornithologist who worked as curator of the bird collection at the British Museum of natural history. In the course of his career he published several mo ...

, in 1879. A 2011 molecular phylogenetic study found that the black-throated robin was the most divergent member of ''Poecilodryas''. The species is now the only species placed in the resurrected genus ''Plesiodryas'' that 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 1820.

Description

Measuring , the black-throated robin has a grey-black face, throat and upper breast with a grey crown and nape, and a white diagonal mark on the neck. The upperparts are blue-grey, and the underparts grey to white over the abdomen and under the tail coverts. The bill and legs are black, and the eyes are dark brown. The plumage is reminiscent of a cuckoo-shrike, but the white neck marking is diagnostic. The black-throated robin is found predominantly in rainforests along the central highlands of New Guinea, from the

Bird's Head Peninsula The Bird's Head Peninsula ( Indonesian: ''Kepala Burung'', nl, Vogelkop) or Doberai Peninsula (''Semenanjung Doberai''), is a large peninsula that makes up the northwest portion of the island of New Guinea, comprising the Indonesian provinces ...

in the west to the

Huon Peninsula Huon Peninsula is a large rugged peninsula on the island of New Guinea in Morobe Province, eastern Papua New Guinea. It is named after French explorer Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec. The peninsula is dominated by the steep Saruwaged and Finisterr ...

in the east, at altitudes from . Within the rainforest, it is found singly in the

understory In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the forest canopy without penetrating it to any great extent, but abo ...

or on the ground. It is insectivorous, and hunts by gleaning.

Taxonomy

Description

References

Further reading