Petroicidae

Taxobox
name = Petroicidae


image_width = 240px
image_caption = "Petroica phoenicea".
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Passeriformes
subordo = Passeri
familia = Petroicidae
subdivision_ranks = Genera
subdivision =
*"Amalocichla"
*"Drymodes"
*"Heteromyias"
*"Poecilodryas"
*"Plesiodryas"
*"Gennaeodryas"
*"Tregellasia"
*"Eopsaltria"
*"Peneoenanthe"
*"Peneothello"
*"Melanodryas"
*"Pachycephalopsis"
*"Eugerygone"
*"Petroica"
*"Microeca"
*"Monachella"
range_

---

range_map_width = 200px
range_map_caption = Global range (In red)

The bird family Petroicidae includes roughly 45 species in about 15 genera. All are endemic to Australasia or nearby areas. For want of a more accurate common name, the family is often described as the Australasian robins: it extends beyond Australasia, however, and includes not just robins but the Jacky Winter, the New Zealand Tomtit, some flycatchers, and scrub-robins.

Characteristics

Most species have a stocky 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 treetrunk and scan the ground below without moving.

Social organisation is usually centered on long term pair-bonds and small family groups. Some genera 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 camouflague, making it very difficult to spot (even when it is in a seemingly prominent location).

ystematics

Although named after true robins, the Petroicidae robins, along with many other insect-eating birds, were classified as flycatchers in a huge family Muscicapidae, [Boles, p. xv] before being placed in their own family or with the whistler family Pachycephalidae. [Boles, p. 35]

The relationship of the Petroicidae to other bird families is uncertain; Sibley and Alquist's DNA-DNA hybridisation studies had placed them in the Corvoidea (a huge group that includes the shrikes, crows and jays, butcherbirds, woodswallows, drongos, cuckoo-shrike, fantails, monarch flycatchers and many others).

In a more recent study, they seem to form a distinct lineage of uncertain relationships; all that can be said at present with reasonable certainty is that they are neither Passerida ("advanced" songbirds) nor a very ancient songbird group. [cite journal |author=Barker, F. Keith; Cibois, Alice; Schikler, Peter A.; Feinstein, Julie & Cracraft, Joel |year=2004|title=Phylogeny and diversification of the largest avian radiation. |journal=PNAS |volume=101 |issue=30 |pages=11040-45 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0401892101 |url=http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/0401892101v1.pdf PDF fulltext|format=pdf|accessdate=2008-08-14]

Ackowledging their position is unclear, current consensus places them as basal Passerida. [cite book |title=Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds|author=Christidis L, Boles WE |year=2008 |publisher=CSIRO Publishing |location=Canberra |isbn=9780643065116 |pages=p. 175]

Classification

A comprehensive review, including an analysis of the osteological characters, by Schodde and Mason in 1999 illustrated three groupings, classified as subfamilies below: [cite book |title=The Directory of Australian Birds : Passerines. A Taxonomic and Zoogeographic Atlas of the Biodiversity of Birds in Australia and its Territories. |author=Schodde R, Mason IJ|year=1999 |publisher=CSIRO Publishing |location=Collingwood, Australia |isbn= 0-643-06457-7]

FAMILY: PETROICIDAE
* Subfamily: Drymodinae
** Genus: "Amalocichla" - 2 species.
** Genus: "Drymodes" - 2 species.
* Subfamily: Eopsaltriinae
** Genus: "Heteromyias" - 2 species'
** Genus: "Poecilodryas" - 4 species.
** Genus: "Plesiodryas"
*** Black-throated Robin, "Plesiodryas albonotata"
** Genus: "Gennaeodryas"
*** Olive-yellow Robin, "Gennaeodryas placens"
** Genus: "Tregellasia" - 2 species.
** Genus: "Eopsaltria" - 4 species.
** Genus: "Peneoenanthe"
*** Mangrove Robin, "Peneoenanthe pulverulenta"
** Genus: "Peneothello" - 4 species.
** Genus: "Melanodryas" - 2 species.
* Subfamily: Petroicinae
** Genus: "Pachycephalopsis" - 2 species.
** Genus: "Eugerygone"
*** Garnet Robin, "Eugerygone rubra"
** Genus: "Petroica" - 11 species.
** Genus: "Microeca" - 6 species.
** Genus: "Monachella"
*** Torrent Flyrobin, "Monachella muelleriana"

References

* Del Hoyo, J.; Elliot, A. & Christie D. (editors). (2007). "Handbook of the Birds of the World". Volume 12: Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. Lynx Edicions. ISBN 9788496553422
* Mathews, G. M. (1920): The Birds of Australia Vol. VIII, No. 4.
* Miller, Hilary C. & Lambert, David M. (2006): A molecular phylogeny of New Zealand’s Petroica (Aves: Petroicidae) species based on mitochondrial DNA sequences. "Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution" 40(3): 844-855. DOI|10.1016/j.ympev.2006.04.012 (HTML abstract)

Cited text

*cite book |title=The Robins and Flycatchers of Australia |last=Boles |first=Walter E.|year=1988 |publisher=Angus & Robertson |location=Sydney |isbn=0-207-15400-7

External links

* [http://ibc.hbw.com/ibc/phtml/familia.phtml?idFamilia=145 Petroicidae videos] on the Internet Bird Collection
* [http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Meliphagoidea&contgroup=Oscines Meliphagoidea] - Highlighting relationships of Maluridae on Tree Of Life Web Project