From: "Greg" <>
Greg Clancy wrote: 'I would have thought that the amount of white in
the tail would have ruled out Pink and indicated that it was a Rose' and
then added, 'Despite my earlier email I do acknowledge that the wing bars
look right for the Pink Robin but I am confused about the amount of white in
the tail'.
So what do we learn from this. Basically, that there is more variation in
Pink Robins than recognised in the literature! One might even say that many
texts are misleading, some plainly wrong! Not previously having used HANZAB
for Pink Robin I am VERY disappointed with the treatment there.
In my first twenty years or so in Australia, from 1964, I visited Cape
Schanck on the Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne almost weekly to do
shore-based sea-watching. Back then, brown Robins were difficult to
identify. Most autumns we would get brown Pink Robins (from Tasmania I
assume) pausing on the headland before heading for the darker, denser
gullies inland where they winter. The books we had then were Cayley's 'What
Bird is That', Leach's 'An Australian Bird Book', and Serventy's 'Birds of
Western Australia'. The latter of course didn't include Pink Robin so was of
no help. We could see some pale in the outer tail, not white but off-white
but even in those days, that was considered wrong for Pink Robin, which we
believed them to be. So I went to the Victorian Museum and contrary to
wide-held belief, found that brown Pink Robins quite normally have a
portion, maybe half, of the outer web of the outermost rectrice off-white. I
now regard that typical of the species. Pink Robins are annual winter
visitors to the Peninsula whereas Rose Robins are rare vagrants. I have only
ever seen one!
The big break through in Robin ID came only as recently as June
1993 with Danny Roger's, 'Red-breasted robins in Australia', one of a series
of Bird Identification articles in Wingspan, brilliantly illustrated by
Peter Marsack. That included diagrams of the tail patterns of our five
robins in which the adult male has a red breast. Against the tail pattern of
Pink Robin I wrote, 'some brown birds have pale base to tail' because
although the outer rectrice was shown paler than the others the shade was
constant. For Pink Robin under 'Brown birds', the text says 'Also unique in
having ALMOST NO WHITE ON OUTER TAIL FEATHERS but note that ground
colour of outer pair varies from dark to light brown; when seen in strong
light outermost feathers can look deceptively off-white'. Rose Robin is
shown as having white extending to the tips of the THREE outer tail
feathers.
So what of Keith Hindley's bird. It is a Pink and not a Rose Robin because
it is a stocky, large headed bird without the long tail of a Rose, both wing
bars are broad, long, extend to the outer primaries, the upper bar is
markedly L shaped, and they are rufous in colour, all contra to Rose Robin.
Whilst the photo is too dark to determine precisely whether the outer tail
feather is white or off-white, it is certainly paler than typical birds and
therefore somewhat anomalous, but note that all the other rectrices appear
wholly dark.
Mike Carter
30 Canadian Bay Road
Mount Eliza VIC 3930
Tel (03) 9787 7136
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