The North Island robin (''Petroica longipes'') is a species of

Australasian robin The bird Family (biology), 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 ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to the North Island of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. It is also known in Māori as the Toutouwai. It and the

South Island robin The South Island robin (''Petroica australis''), also known in Māori as the Kakaruwai., is a sparrow-sized bird found only in New Zealand, where it has the status of a protected endemic species. The birds are sparsely distributed through the ...

(''P. australis'') of the South Island and Stewart Island were once considered conspecific (and called the "New Zealand robin"), but mitochondrial DNA sequences have shown that the two lineages split prior to the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

, and support the classification as two different species.Miller, Hilary C. & Lambert, David M. (2006): A molecular phylogeny of New Zealand's ''Petroica'' (Aves: Petroicidae) species based on mitochondrial DNA sequences. ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'' 40(3): 844–855.

Description

The plumage is dark grey-black overall, with a pale area (smaller than that of the South Island robin) on the belly and breast, and pale streaking on the upperparts. They are

sexually dimorphic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...

, with males having darker plumage than the females and being slightly larger.

Distribution and habitat

The North Island robin is distributed mostly in the centre of the North Island, with small

relict A relict is a surviving remnant of a natural phenomenon. Biology A relict (or relic) is an organism that at an earlier time was abundant in a large area but now occurs at only one or a few small areas. Geology and geomorphology In geology, a r ...

populations in the north and south, on Moturua Island in the

Bay of Islands The Bay of Islands is an area on the east coast of the Far North District of the North Island of New Zealand. It is one of the most popular fishing, sailing and tourist destinations in the country, and has been renowned internationally for it ...

Little Barrier Island Little Barrier Island, or Hauturu in Māori language (the official Māori title is ''Te Hauturu-o-Toi''), lies off the northeastern coast of New Zealand's North Island. Located to the north of Auckland, the island is separated from the mainla ...

, and

Kapiti Island Kapiti Island () is an island about off the west coast of the lower North Island of New Zealand. It is long, running southwest/northeast, and roughly wide, being more or less rectangular in shape, and has an area of . Its name has been used s ...

.Higgins, P.J. & J.M. Peter (eds) 2003. ''Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 6: Pardalotes to Shrike-thrushes. '' Oxford University Press, Melbourne. Populations have been reestablished in the Zealandia sanctuary in Wellington, and at Moehau on the

Coromandel Peninsula The Coromandel Peninsula ( mi, Te Tara-O-Te-Ika-A-Māui) on the North Island of New Zealand extends north from the western end of the Bay of Plenty, forming a natural barrier protecting the Hauraki Gulf and the Firth of Thames in the ...

. A remnant population is also reestablishing itself in the Ōhope Scenic Reserve, near

Whakatāne Whakatāne ( , ) is the seat of the Bay of Plenty region in the North Island of New Zealand, east of Tauranga and north-east of Rotorua, at the mouth of the Whakatāne River. Whakatāne District is the encompassing territorial authority, ...

; 40 birds were translocated to the reserve from Mokoia Island to assist the population there. Their natural habitat is mostly native forest, particularly ''

Podocarpus ''Podocarpus'' () is a genus of conifers, the most numerous and widely distributed of the podocarp family, the Podocarpaceae. The name comes from Greek πούς (poús, “foot”) + καρπός (karpós, “fruit”). ''Podocarpus'' species ...

'' and southern beech (

Nothofagaceae ''Nothofagus'', also known as the southern beeches, is a genus of 43 species of trees and shrubs native to the Southern Hemisphere in southern South America (Chile, Argentina) and Australasia (east and southeast Australia, New Zealand, New Gui ...

) forests, from sea level up to the tree-line.

Behaviour

Feeding

The North Island robin, like the South Island robin, is a terrestrial feeder foraging on or near the ground (unlike the related and more arboreal

tomtit The tomtit (''Petroica macrocephala'') is a small passerine bird in the family Petroicidae, the Australasian robins. It is endemic to the islands of New Zealand, ranging across the main islands as well as several of the outlying islands. In M� ...

). Prey items are located by perch-hunting, where an individual waits at an elevated perch until prey is spotted, or by active searching; prey is taken from the leaf-litter, low vegetation (branches and foliage), and tree trunks. Numerous

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

prey are taken, including

cicada The cicadas () are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera (true bugs). They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers. The superfamily is divided into tw ...

earthworm An earthworm is a terrestrial invertebrate that belongs to the phylum Annelida. They exhibit a tube-within-a-tube body plan; they are externally segmented with corresponding internal segmentation; and they usually have setae on all segments. T ...

wētā Wētā (also spelt weta) is the common name for a group of about 100 insect species in the families Anostostomatidae and Rhaphidophoridae endemic to New Zealand. They are giant flightless crickets, and some are among the heaviest insects in ...

, snails, and spiders. Fruit is also taken. North Island robins cache food supplies for later when prey is plentiful, although males cache more food than females do.Burns, K.C. & Steer J (2006) "Dominance rank influences food hoarding in New Zealand Robins ''Petroica australis''" ''Ibis'' 148: 266–272 Both sexes will steal food from their mate's cache, and are less likely to cache food, if their mate is present.

Gallery

File:Juvenile NZ Robin.jpg, left, Juvenile begging for food File:North Island Robin with weta.jpg, this robin has caught a tree wētā File:NZ North Island Robin-3.jpg, Standing perfectly still on a perch awaiting prey

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3316087 North Island robin Birds of the North Island North Island robin North Island robin Endemic birds of New Zealand