Red-capped Robin Petroica goodenovii

Length 10.5–12.5 cm; wingspan 15–19.5 cm; weight 9 g.

A distinctive, small, slender robin, the Red-capped Robin is usually seen singly or in twos.  Its head is usually hunched into its rather tubby, rotund body, and its wings are often lowered to below the level of the tail, both of which are often flicked nervously.  They are usually rather quiet, tame and confiding, and often a little curious.  They forage mostly on or near the ground, mainly by perching on stumps, low branches or similar low vantage points, and pouncing onto prey on the ground, or sallying into the air to catch flying insects.  When foraging on the ground, Red-capped Robins sometimes cock their head to one side, quickly raising and lowering of one wing, and then the other, and shuffling one foot in the leaf litter, possibly to flush prey.  Less often they forage in low shrubs or trees, making quick darting flights from low perches to snatch prey from the branches and foliage, or gleaning prey.  The species often joins mixed-species feeding flocks with other small insectivorous birds such as thornbills, fantails and whistlers.  The flight of the Red-capped Robin is similar to that of Scarlet and Flame Robins, being swift and strongly undulating.

HABITAT
The species occurs in most inland shrublands and woodlands with trees or tall shrubs, especially acacias or eucalypts, cypress-pines, or casuarinas (such as Drooping Sheoak or Buloke) supporting a low, open shrub layer comprising species such as Acacia, Cassia, Grevillea or Hakea.  Fallen timber is a key characteristic of suitable habitats.  Mulga woodlands and shrublands are especially favoured, as are woodlands dominated by mallee eucalypts with a groundcover of spinifex, though dry, open woodlands supporting Brigalow or taller eucalypts such as box–ironbark species including Grey Box, Forest Red Gum, Broad-leaved Stringybark or Blakely’s Red Gum are also inhabited.  They also occasionally occur in mixed forests or woodlands with eucalypts, cypress-pines, casuarinas or, occasionally, paperbarks.  Red-capped Robins are also occasionally recorded in open, treeless shrublands, e.g. of chenopods or Cassia, Dodonaea and Eremophila.  Modified habitats, such as farmland with scattered trees, are also sometimes inhabited.

DISTRIBUTION
Endemic to mainland Australia.

STATUS

• Declining in New South Wales
• Declining in Victoria, and listed as a member of a declining Temperate Woodland Community in Victoria
• Declining in South Australia

THREATS
Declines in populations and local extinctions as a result of clearing and loss of habitat reported throughout Australia.  In a study in remnant woodland near Forbes, NSW, the density of male Red-capped Robins was significantly lower, and the age-structure younger, in small linear patches of remnant vegetation than in large non-linear remnants.  There was apparently no significant difference in the survival rate in small linear remnants compared with large remnant patches, but small linear remnants represented poorer breeding habitat than large patches of remnant woodland in terms of risk of predation.  The species is occasionally killed by cats.

MOVEMENTS
Not fully known, and the extent and nature of this species’ movements are not clear.

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