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The flame robin (''Petroica phoenicea'') is a small passerine bird native to Australia. It is a moderately common resident of the coolest parts of south-eastern Australia, including Tasmania. Like the other two red-breasted ''Petroica'' robins—the scarlet robin and the red-capped robin—it is often simply called the ''robin redbreast''. Like many brightly coloured robins of the Petroicidae, it is sexually dimorphic. Measuring long, the flame robin has dark brown eyes and a small thin black bill. The male has a brilliant orange-red chest and throat, and a white patch on the forehead above the bill. Its upper parts are iron-grey with white bars, and its tail black with white tips. The female is a nondescript grey-brown. Its song has been described as the most musical of its genus. The position of the flame robin and its Australian relatives on the passerine family tree is unclear; the Petroicidae are not closely related to either the European or American robins but appear to be an early offshoot of the Passerida group of songbirds. The flame robin is predominantly insectivorous, pouncing on prey from a perch in a tree, or foraging on the ground. A territorial bird, the flame robin employs song and plumage displays to mark out and defend its territory. Classified by BirdLife International as ''Near Threatened'', the species has suffered a marked decline in the past 25 years. ==Taxonomy== The flame robin was first described by the French naturalists Jean René Constant Quoy and Joseph Paul Gaimard in 1830 as ''Muscicapa chrysoptera''.〔Quoy, Jean René Constant; Gaimard, Joseph Paul in Dumont-d'Urville, J. (1830). ''Voyage de découvertes de l'Astrolabe exécuté par ordre du Roi, pendant les anneés 1826–1827–1828–1829, sous le commandement de M.J. Dumont-d'Urville''. Zoologie. Paris: J. Tastu Vol. 1〕 The specific epithet, ''"chrysoptera"'', is derived from the Ancient Greek words ''chrysos'' "golden", and ''pteron'' "feather". John Gould placed the flame robin in its current genus as ''Petroica phoenicea'' in his 1837 description, and it was this latter binomial name that has been used since that time. Given this, Quoy and Gaimard's name was declared a ''nomen oblitum''. The generic name is derived from the Ancient Greek words ''petros'' "rock" and ''oikos'' "home", from the birds' habit of sitting on rocks.〔Boles, p. 66.〕 The specific epithet is also derived from Ancient Greek, from the adjective ''phoinikes'' "red". It is one of five red- or pink-breasted species colloquially known as "red robins", as distinct from the "yellow robins" of the genus ''Eopsaltria''. Although named after the European robin, is not closely related to it or the American robin.〔 The Australian robins were placed in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae,〔Boles, p. xv.〕 and the whistler family Pachycephalidae,〔Boles, p. 35.〕 before being classified in their own family Petroicidae, or Eopsaltridae.〔 Sibley and Ahlquist's DNA-DNA hybridisation studies placed the robins in a Corvida parvorder comprising many tropical and Australian passerines including pardalotes, fairy-wrens and honeyeaters as well as crows. However, subsequent molecular research (and current consensus) places the robins as a very early offshoot of the Passerida, or "advanced" songbirds, within the songbird lineage. No subspecies are recognised,〔Higgins ''et al.'', p. 666.〕 and the degree of geographic variation is unclear. Adult male birds which breed on the mainland have been reported as having lighter upperparts and underparts than their Tasmanian relatives, and females are said to be browner, but these differences may also result from worn plumage. Furthermore, migration across the Bass Strait by some birds obfuscates the issue. Mainland and Tasmanian birds are the same size.〔Higgins ''et al.'', p. 681.〕 Ornithologists Richard Schodde and Ian Mason argued that the poor quality of museum collections and partially migratory habits meant that discrete subspecies could not be distinguished on the basis of the observed variation within the species. ''Flame-breasted robin'' was the common name formerly used for the species, and it was gradually abbreviated to ''flame robin''.〔Boles, p. 68.〕 Other names recorded include ''bank robin'', ''redhead'', and (inaccurately) ''robin redbreast''.〔 "Flame Robin" is the preferred vernacular name of the International Ornithological Congress.〔Frank Gill and Minturn Wright, ''Birds of the World: Recommended English Names'', Princeton University Press, 2006.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「flame robin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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