Western yellow robin
| Western yellow robin | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Petroicidae |
| Genus: | Eopsaltria |
| Species: | E. griseogularis |
| Binomial name | |
| Eopsaltria griseogularis Gould, 1838 | |
The western yellow robin (Eopsaltria griseogularis), also known as the grey-breasted robin, is a species of bird in the Petroicidae family. It is endemic to Australia. In southwest Western Australia, it was known as bamborn by the local indigenous people.[2]
Taxonomy
John Gould described the western yellow robin in 1838. The specific name is from the Latin words griseus "grey" and gula "throat". [3]
The eastern and western yellow robins were classified as a single species by Julian Ford in 1979 on account of similarities in calls, ecology and behaviour. Playback of one species' calls in the other's territory evoked a response.[4]
Like all Australian robins, it is not closely related to either the European robin or the American robin, but belongs rather to the Corvida parvorder comprising many tropical and Australian passerines including pardalotes, fairy-wrens and honeyeaters as well as crows. It belongs to the genus Eopsaltria, whose Australian members are known colloquially as "yellow robins" as distinct from the "red robins" of the genus Petroica.
Habitat
The western yellow robin's natural habitats are temperate forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, and Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation. It selectively occupies sites according to habitat attributes at various spatial scales. At microhabitat scale, they prefer to occupy high density canopy, leaf litter and logs than in unoccupied sites, whereas on landscape scale occupies sites away from the woodland/agricultural ecotone. Studies have showed that the main reason behind this is higher abundance of leaf litter prey and prey associated with logs compared with more open sites with a low canopy density and low log density.[5]
References
- ↑ BirdLife International (2012). "Eopsaltria griseogularis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
- ↑ Abbott, Ian (2009). "Aboriginal names of bird species in south-west Western Australia, with suggestions for their adoption into common usage" (PDF). Conservation Science Western Australia Journal 7 (2): 213-78 [263].
- ↑ Simpson DP. (1979) [1854]. Cassell's Latin Dictionary (5 ed.). London: Cassell Ltd. p. 269. ISBN 0-304-52257-0.
- ↑ Ford, Julian (1979). "Speciation or Subspeciation in the Yellow Robins?". Emu 79 (3): 103–06. doi:10.1071/mu9790103.
- ↑ Cousin (2004). "Habitat selection of the western yellow robin (Eopsaltria griseogularis) in a Wandoo woodland, Western Australia".