Petroicidae – Australasian Robins

The Petroicidae (Australasian Robins) currently includes fifty-one species in sixteen 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 the Australasian robins.

These upright-postured insectivores of Australasia mostly frequent forests and forest edges. With their upright stance, compact shapes, large round heads, and plumages of greys, browns, and blacks above contrasting with yellow, red, or even pink on the underparts, many Australasian robins recall their European namesake. Generally quiet birds, they sit and wait, often from a low perch only a meter or two above the forest floor, for passing insect prey. This group includes the ground-and scrub-robins, birds more terrestrial than the rest, and the latter distinctive for the long tails that they cock over their backs.

Within the family the species are known not only as robins but as scrub-robins and fly-robins. They are, however, only distantly related to the Old-World family Muscicapidae (to which other species with such names belong) and the Monarchidae (Monarch Flycatchers).

Most species have a compact build with a large, rounded head, a short, straight bill, and rounded wingtips. They occupy a wide range of wooded habitats, from subalpine to tropical rainforest, and mangrove swamps to semi-arid scrubland. All are primarily insectivorous, although a few supplement their diet with seeds. Hunting is mostly by perch and pounce, a favoured tactic being to cling sideways onto a tree-trunk and scan the ground below without moving.

Slaty Robin Melanodryas cyanus

Papuan Scrub Robin Drymodes beccarii

Social organisation is usually centred on long-term pair-bonds and small family groups. Most members of the subfamily Eopsaltrinae practice cooperative breeding, with all family members helping defend a territory and feed nestlings.

Nests are cup-shaped, usually constructed by the female, and often placed in a vertical fork of a tree or shrub. Many species are expert at adding moss, bark or lichen to the outside of the nest as camouflage, making it very difficult to spot, even when it is in a seemingly prominent location.