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Donald Knowler

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Fanning the flames of passion

October 10, 2021 Don Knowler

I search for the beautiful flame robin in spring and invariably turn up its close relative, the scarlet robin.
It makes me wonder if my illustrious predecessor Michael Sharland got it wrong when he wrote in his Tasmanian Birds of 1948 that the flame robin was the family member most likely to be seen in Tasmania. Either this, or things have changed on the robin front in the past seventy-odd years.’
Although I see and hear scarlet robins all the time on the green fringes of Hobart, and sometimes near the city centre itself, I have
to search high and low for what I consider the most elegantl of our red-breasted robins, the flame which as its name suggests radiates in stunning colour like the embers of hot coals.
One fact about the robins mentioned by Sharland – the legendary nature writer in the Mercury last century who wrote under the pen name of Peregrine – has certainly since been disproved. It was believed at the time that a portion of the flame robin population migrated across Bass Strait each year but a half century of surveys my Birdlife Tasmania members has found otherwise, although the occasional robin might stray to the mainland.
After my latest robin foray last week I returned home to find the latest Tasmanian Bird Report in my letter box and, by coincidence, there was an article on the latest research into flame robin distribution in the south-east of the state.
Surveys over the years have provided an interesting picture of flame robin movements. Basically, it is confirmed the robin migration is a domestic, altitudinal one. The flame robins form small flocks in lower altitudes in winter before part of the overall population chooses to move to higher ground.
These movements in spring and autumn may well have given rise to the notion in past years that they crossed Bass Strait, a fact also mentioned in the relatively recent Fauna of Tasmania – Birds by the noted Tasmanian biologist, the late Bob Green.
The Tasmanian Bird Report is an important and trusted vehicle for the publication of papers focusing on Tasmania’s birdlife by researchers and amateur birdwatchers alike, together with reports compiled for government and commercial bodies. It draws its material from some of the country’s oldest avian records, some stretching back to Birdlife Tasmania’s formation 50 years ago.
All four robin species found in Tasmania have always attracted much attention. One of the four species, the dusky robin, is endemic and another, the pink robin, is more likely to be seen here than in its remote range on the mainland.
The flame robin remains my favourite even though it can be confused with its close family member. They are easily told apart, however, by the extent of the bright red feathers on their chests, the flame robin’s reaching to just under its beak.

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