Hooded Robin Melanodryas cucullata

Length 15–17.5 cm; wingspan 24.5–28.5 cm; weight 22 g.

A medium-large robin, the Hooded Robin has a rather short, slender bill and a moderately long and square-tipped tail, and is usually seen singly, in twos or, occasionally, in small family parties or co-operatively breeding groups.  The species is rather quiet and shy.  Robins are often seen perched on low, exposed sites, such as dead branches, tree stumps, fence posts or tree-trunks, searching for prey.  They forage by pouncing from a low vantage point onto prey on the ground, and then returning to the perch.  Their flight is short, swift and undulating, exposing the conspicuous white portions of their wings and tail.  Although they are usually quiet during the day, Hooded Robins regularly call before dawn, and often sing on moonlit nights.

HABITAT
The Hooded Robin is recorded mainly in lightly timbered habitats, especially dry sclerophyll woodlands and tall shrublands dominated by acacias (such as Mulga, Lancewood or Brigalow) or eucalypts (especially box–ironbark eucalypts, such as Grey Box, Yellow Box, White Box, Yellow Gum, Broad-leaved Stringybark, Mugga Ironbark, and Blakely’s Red Gum, and mallee eucalypts, as well as River Red Gum, Black Box, Spotted Gum, Manna Gum, Spotted Gum or Rough-barked Apple), where they often occur in or near grassy clearings with much dead or fallen timber that provides suitable perches for foraging.  They are also recorded in other semi-arid vegetation, such as cypress-pine or casuarina woodland, bluebush or samphire shrubland, and mallee heathland.  The species is sometimes also recorded on spear-grass plains with scattered trees.  It often occurs in the ecotone between trees and open areas.

DISTRIBUTION
Endemic to mainland Australia.

STATUS

• Vulnerable in New South Wales
• Near Threatened in Victoria, and listed as a member of a declining Temperate Woodland Community in Victoria
• Rare in South Australia

THREATS
Populations of the Hooded Robin have declined in woodlands throughout south-eastern and south-western Australia.  The species’ preferred habitats have been cleared over much of its range, and most of the remaining habitat is fragmented; even large remnants appear to be unsuitable for sustaining populations of Hooded Robins in the long term; the reason for the species’ susceptibility to fragmentation is poorly understood.  The decline of the population inhabiting the You Yangs, in southern Victoria, is possibly linked with the infestation of that area by the invasive woody weed Boneseed, which makes the understorey too dense to inhabit.  Recently fledged young are possibly preyed upon by foxes.

MOVEMENTS
Resident or sedentary, though some birds may undertake local movements, as a seasonal occurrence has been reported at some sites.

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