Pink Robin (Petroica rodinogaster)

Pink Robin (adult male)

Pink Robins (female feeding young)

Pink Robin (sub adult male)

Female on nest

Pink Robins occur in the wet gullies and rainforests of the southern mainland of Australia, but Tasmania is the species’ stronghold. At Black Sugarloaf they breed in the swamp and gullies and build their nests in the upper fork of a small tree such as a dogwood, musk or paperbark.

Their nests are well constructed and well hidden and are unlikely to be seen unless a bird is building the nest or feeding young. Bark strips are bound with spiders’ web and the outside of the nest is decorated with mosses, liverworts and flakes of lichen.

I was fortunate one late January afternoon to watch and photograph a family of several young birds being fed by the female. The male watched but seemed to take no part in the feeding. While the young were still in the nest, however, he did do his share of food gathering.