Flame Robin

FLAME ROBIN Petroica phoenicea

I was out at the sewerage treatment plant to the west of Kilmore yesterday  morning. It was cold but there was plenty of sunshine. I had gone to see what might be visiting the settling ponds but things there were very quiet. Only a small number of shelducks were about.
























I walked past the ponds to a bushy area set aside by Trust For Nature. Here there were plenty of mature trees and young saplings of grey box, yellow and peppermint gum. The birds were a little more active here.
 

This male Flame Robin was sitting on a fence moving between the wires and the ground as he hunted for insects amongst the grass. He stood out against the trees from over a hundred metres away. The bright red, almost orange colouring on this robin, covers the body all the way from just under the chin to the legs. This fellow was sitting up very straight, showing his chest to the whole world and I was able to approach quite close before he would move further along the fence.

There were several female robins also working the ground with this male. They show no red colouring at all but wing markings are similar to those of the male.

Wiikipedia tells me, 'The name is derived from the Ancient Greek words petros "rock" and oikos "home", from the birds' habit of sitting on rocks.^[5] The specific epithet is also derived from Ancient Greek, from the adjective phoinikes "red" '.