North Island robin
species of bird
The North Island robin (Petroica longipes; Māori: toutouwai, pronounced [ˈtoutouwai]) is a species of Australasian robin endemic to the North Island of New Zealand. It and the South Island robin (P. australis) of the South Island and Stewart Island were once considered conspecific (and called the "New Zealand robin"), but mitochondrial DNA sequences have shown that the two lineages split prior to the Pleistocene, and support the classification as two different species.
Description
The plumage is dark grey-black overall, with a pale area (smaller than that of the South Island robin) on the belly and breast, and pale streaking on the upperparts. At the base of their beaks is a hidden patch of white feathers that are occasionally "flashed" when interacting with other robins or similar sized birds. They are sexually dimorphic, with males having darker plumage than the females and being slightly larger.
Distribution and habitat
The North Island robin is distributed mostly in the centre of the North Island, with small relict populations in the north and south, on Moturua Island in the Bay of Islands, Little Barrier Island, and Kapiti Island. Populations have been reestablished in the Zealandia sanctuary in Wellington, at Bushy Park near Whanganui, and at Moehau on the Coromandel Peninsula. A remnant population is also reestablishing itself in the Ōhope Scenic Reserve, near Whakatāne; 40 birds were translocated to the reserve from Mokoia Island to assist the population there. There are estimated to be more than 10,000 individuals.
Their natural habitat is mostly native forest, particularly Podocarpus and southern beech (Nothofagaceae) forests, from sea level up to the tree-line.
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This entry incorporates text from “North Island robin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.