The pale-yellow robin (''Tregellasia capito'') 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 t ...

bird in the 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

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 elsew ...

to eastern

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 ...

. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. It is a nondescript bird with grey head and olive upperparts, white throat and yellow underparts. The sexes are similar. Two subspecies are recognised: the smaller ''nana'' from North Queensland, and the larger and uncommon nominate race ''capito'' from southeast Queensland and northeastern New South Wales. It is insectivorous.

Taxonomy

The pale-yellow robin was first described by ornithologist

John Gould John Gould (; 14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist. He published a number of monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, including Edward Lear, ...

in 1854. For many years, it was classified with the other yellow robins in the genus ''

Eopsaltria ''Eopsaltria'' is a genus of small forest passerines known in Australia as the yellow robins. They belong to the Australasian robin family Petroicidae. The name is derived from the Ancient Greek for "dawn singer/song" because of their dawn chorus ...

'', on the basis of plumage, nests, and behaviour. Others have placed it with the genus ''

Poecilodryas ''Poecilodryas'' is a genus of passerine birds in the Australasian robin family Petroicidae. The genus was erected by the English ornithologist and bird artist John Gould in 1865. The type species was subsequently designated as the buff-sided ...

'', due to the similarly plumaged fledglings. However, the closest relatives of both it and the related white-faced robin remain unclear, and are hence placed in their own small genus ''

Tregellasia ''Tregellasia'' is a genus of birds in the family Petroicidae that are found in Australia and New Guinea. The genus was introduced by the Australian ornithologist Gregory Mathews in 1912 with the pale-yellow robin (''Tregellasia capito'') as th ...

'', originally erected by

Gregory Mathews Gregory Macalister Mathews Order of the British Empire, 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, New South Wal ...

in 1912. Like all Australian robins, it is not closely related to either the

European robin The European robin (''Erithacus rubecula''), known simply as the robin or robin redbreast in Great Britain & Ireland, is a small insectivorous passerine bird that belongs to the chat subfamily of the Old World flycatcher family. About in len ...

or the

American robin The American robin (''Turdus migratorius'') is a migratory bird of the true thrush genus and Turdidae, the wider thrush family. It is named after the European robin because of its reddish-orange breast, though the two species are not closel ...

, but belongs rather to the

Corvida The "Corvida" were one of two "parvorders" contained within the suborder Passeri, as proposed in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, the other being Passerida. Standard taxonomic practice would place them at the rank of infraorder. More recent resea ...

parvorder Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...

, comprising many tropical and Australian passerines, including pardalotes, fairy-wrens and

honeyeaters The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family, Meliphagidae, of small to medium-sized birds. The family includes the Australian chats, myzomelas, friarbirds, wattlebirds, miners and melidectes. They are most common in Australia and New Guinea ...

, as well as

crow A crow is a bird of the genus ''Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not pinned scientifical ...

s. Alternate common names given to the species have been large-headed robin and pale robin.

Subspecies

*''T. c. capito'' is the nominate race from rainforests of northeastern New South Wales and southeastern Queensland. Larger than the northern subspecies, it has a paler off-white face and is uncommon within its range. *''T. c. nana'', described in 1878 as ''Eopsaltria nana'' by E.B. Ramsay from a specimen collected in Cardwell, has been called the buff-faced or rufous-lored robin, and is found in rainforest in far north Queensland. It is smaller than the southern subspecies, and its subspecific name ''nana'' is

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for 'dwarf'. It has a pale tan face and a pale orange-brown eye ring, hence its common name. It is fairly abundant within its range.

Description

The male and female pale-yellow robin are similar in plumage. Measuring and weighing , it is a bird of subdued appearance, with grey head and nape blending into olive-green upperparts, more brownish on the wings and tail. The throat is white, and the lores are off-white in the southern race and buff in the northern race. The breast and belly are yellow. The legs are yellow-orange and the iris dark brown. The thin black bill is around long. Juvenile birds are

rufous Rufous () is a color that may be described as reddish-brown or brownish-red, as of rust or oxidised iron. The first recorded use of ''rufous'' as a color name in English was in 1782. However, the color is also recorded earlier in 1527 as a dia ...

with paler streaks on the head. It can be distinguished from the

eastern yellow robin The eastern yellow robin (''Eopsaltria australis'') is an Australasian robin of coastal and sub-coastal eastern Australia. The extent of the eastern yellow robin's residence is from the extreme southeast corner of South Australia through most ...

, as the latter bird has black legs and is a little larger. The pale-yellow robin makes a trilling call when displaying or defending its territory.

Distribution and habitat

Sedentary in its range, the pale-yellow robin is found from Mount Amos to Paluma in North Queensland, and from Cooloola on the Sunshine Coast south to

Barrington Tops National Park The Barrington Tops National Park is a protected national park located in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, Australia. Gazetted in 1969, the park is situated between Scone, Singleton, Dungog, Gloucester and East Gresford. The park is part ...

in New South Wales. It prefers rainforest or dense eucalypt forest, particularly where the lawyer vine grows.

Behaviour

The pale-yellow robin is arboreal and secretive. It is predominantly insectivorous, though may supplement its diet with seeds.

Breeding

It uses the prickly lawyer vine (''

Calamus Calamus may refer to: Botany and zoology * ''Calamus'' (fish), a genus of fish in the family Sparidae * ''Calamus'' (palm), a genus of rattan palms * Calamus, the hollow shaft of a feather, also known as the quill * '' Acorus calamus'', the swe ...

muelleri'') as nesting material and as a nest site. The

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 ...

may be anywhere up to 10 m (30 ft) above the ground, though often much lower. Breeding season is July to December with one, or sometimes two, broods. A clutch of 2 oval eggs, measuring , is laid. They are pale green, splotched with brownish marks.

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q744193

pale-yellow robin The pale-yellow robin (''Tregellasia capito'') is a species of passerine bird in the family Petroicidae. It is Endemism, endemic to eastern Australia. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. It is a nondescript bird ...

Birds of Queensland Endemic birds of Australia

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