Melanodryas vittata (Dusky Robin) IUCN Status: Least Concern The “Plain Jane” of the Tasmanian robins. Interestingly there are 4 species of the “Australasian Robins” (family Petroicidae) in Tasmania. The other three are highly colourful, and this one plain. Yet elsewhere, the colourful species are in the small minority, most of the species are much plainer.
It goes to show that if you only had Tassie as a sample, it would be reasonable to expect that most robins would be colourful. Extrapolation if a dangerous thing to do within the taxonomy… but how often had you heard such done in documentaries (especially in palentology)?
