Rose Robin Petroica rosea Scientific name definitions

11–12 cm; 7–10 g. Male has head  and upperparts  dark grey, semicircular white forehead patch  ; upperwing dark grey-brown; tail sooty black, rectrix T3 with narrow white tip, T4 with large white tip interrupted by black along shaft on outer web, T5 with distal 40% white (except for dark subterminal patch on outer web), T6 white with small dark subterminal patch on outer web; chin and throat dark grey, breast  to upper belly rose-red, middle of belly to undertail-coverts  white; iris dark brown; bill black; legs very dark brown, soles yellow-orange. Female  has crown, face  and upperparts grey-brown, forehead spot and eyering light buff to buffish-white, small buff-white patches at base of innermost primaries and secondaries (forming wingbar) and pale edges on distal half of secondaries (thin wingstripe), tail dark grey-brown with extensive white on outer three feather pairs, underparts light brownish-grey, paler towards belly, grey-brown wash on breast side and flanks, breast sometimes with pink flush; bill brownish. Juvenile  has upperparts grey-brown with paler streaks, underparts  mottled and streaked off-white and buff-brown, wing and tail as female; immature male similar to adult female, young male sometimes with pink flush on breast (lacking on immature female).

SE Australia from mid NE New South Wales S to S Victoria; non-breeding N to SE (rarely, CE) Queensland and, in S, W to SE South Australia (Fleurieu Peninsula).

Insects and other small arthropods. Most prey captured above 2 m from ground, sometimes up to 20 m; in one study, 3·4% of items taken on ground, 1·5% at 0–1 m, 3·9% at 1–2 m, 54·1% at 2–5 m, 37·1% above 5 m; in another, ground 10%, 0·2–4 m 55%, 4·1–10 m 23%, above 10 m 12%. Forages in outer foliage or by making aerial sallies; substrates used are air (26–48%), trunks and branches (23–25%), foliage (22–38 %), ground (7–11%). Capture techniques are aerial flycatching (26–28%), sally-strikes (29–59%), gleaning (5–48%), pounce from perch (4–10%). Joins mixed-species foraging flocks.

Song a quiet sweet trill  , “dick dick diddit deer deer”, like a bell (or likened to sound of ball-bearing bouncing on a hard surface), last 2 notes higher. Contact call a nasal “neep”, also “tick”  like sound of snapping of dry twig; also harsh alarm note, various twitterings and churring.