I haven’t seen one of these near Newstead for a long time. Early this morning I came across a couple of Red-capped Robins Petroica goodenovii, just to the north of Spring Hill Track - location. I managed to get a close look at one of them, from less than 10 metres, as it flew to the ground from a low perch a number of times. In the late 1980s it wasn’t unusual to see Red-capped Robins at Sandon but they have become very scarce – again probably as a result of the ongoing dry conditions. Typically associated with the dry inland their movements are not well understood, generally regarded as a resident, albeit in low numbers in suitable habitat north of the Great Divide. Both birds this morning were brown plumaged and I suspect the one in the photograph is a mature female. Unfortunately I didn’t see the strikingly coloured male but will search again over the next few days. As always I would be very interested to hear of other local observations. Crested Bellbirds were also heard in fine voice in the same general area.
Red-capped Robin, Spring Hill Track, 26th March 2010
Geoff Park
listeningearth
pkavanagh
EJ
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darrylobryan
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john1055283
Nice sighting Geoff, and terrific photo. I’ll have to keep an eye out for them. Hopefully they’ll stick around for a while.
It is interesting to speculate on why they have been declining locally. Given that there have been increasingly dry conditions in the local area over recent years/decades, it is possible that the Red-capped Robin populations could have gone the other way. That is, this bird of the dry inland could have been favoured by the drier local conditions, and become more abundant. But, clearly, it hasn’t.
Perhaps the dry conditions, combined with the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation, are also contributing to the paucity of recent local records. I remember reading that there can often be a long time lag between when habitat fragmentation occurs and when its effects are seen (that is, it might take years or decades after the habitat fragmentation occurs for bird populations to slowly decline and then disappear from the remaining fragments).
Cheers,
Chris
Hi Chris – thanks for this thoughtful note. I had been thinking about the possibility (of dry adapted species such as RCR becoming more common locally) also. I reckon the drought has affected these species also leading to a general overall decline. It’s great to see them back – in fact Scarlet and Hooded Robins both seem to be doing OK at the moment also. Look forward to catching up sometime.
Cheers, geoff
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