Ladies and gentlemen, words cannot express how excited I was to see my first female red-capped robin recently.  Red-capped robins (Petroica goodenovii) are uncommon breeding visitors to the Canberra region (Australia).  I’ve only ever seen one male.  And, we had the camera with us!  Wonders never cease.

My husband was driving but he still managed to see a little bird flitting about (credit where credit is due).  I convinced him to stop to see if we could identify it.  My heart fluttered when I saw a flash of red, but I thought my mind was playing tricks because the red wasn’t in the usual places.  It was a lovely little female red-capped robin all on her own (or maybe it was a juvenile?  If I’ve got that wrong, please let me know).  The red-capped robins are the smallest of the Aussie robins.  What a merry wee thing she was, flitting and fluttering her way down the fence line.  I think she needs her own poem, don’t you?

She — Red-Capped Robin

busy bird bouncing
flight from filigree fence
onlookers entranced

red polka dot bedecked
solitary traveler
seeks mate with raspberry beret

What do we have here?
©Reflections of an Untidy Mind
©Reflections of an Untidy Mind

I don’t have a photo of a male red-capped robin, but I will include a link to some images at the end of this post for those interested in checking him out.  He really does look like he is wearing a raspberry beret.

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

Response to the Ragtag Daily Prompt — Solitude / Solitary.
For more red-capped robin images, see here.

 

42 thoughts on “She – Red Capped Robin”

  1. What a lovely little thing. 🙂 American robins are thrushes with red breasts, fairly large for “ordinary” birds. This is the first year they haven’t nested over my walkway. Probably because of all the bears…

    Liked by 2 people

      1. The little Teddy Bear is the bird killer. The big Polar Bear eats them and gets diarrhea. The birds get even. I guess our red-breasted thrushes ended up robins for the same reason yours did, unless yours is a legit robin. I don’t care I love them. I used to go high up in the mountains in San Diego County to see them. I missed them so much.

        Liked by 1 person

      1. I regularly see red backed wrens and occasionally rose robins, but am not sure I’ve ever seen a red-capped robin up here. I think we had them out west in NSW but back then I didn’t know enough about birds to realise what I was looking at. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

  10. What a lovely little bird. I know our Australian robins are not the same as the British ones but I love them too. I occasionally get a Dusky Robin in the garden but they always seem to turn up when I don’t have the camera handy. One flew onto a branch of the weeping maple the other week but of course by the time I’d run for the long lens he was gone.

    Like

  12. It does look like a female to me, from the reddish cap and white breast. If it were a young male it most likely wouldn’t be getting its red cap without patches of red appearing on the breast as well. We’ve had a spate of Red-capped Robins in the eastern parts of their range in the past few years due to the drought out west. I blogged about it in 2017 here: https://lyreades.wordpress.com/2017/12/31/refugees-from-the-drought/

    Liked by 2 people

    1. My birder son agrees with you, Carol. We’ve now seen a pair of them. They look like the move eastward is agreeing with them. I loved your photos in your linked post. We have quite a few of the rarer visitors come to our yard this year. I do hope it improves out west for the sweeties. I wouldn’t be surprised to have apostle birds turning up on our doorstep at this rate.

      Liked by 1 person

  13. Such a cutie! Your last photo is stunning Tracy. As a fashionista and fan of Prince I can only agree with your lovely poem. Hey, Polka dot and a raspberry beret look great to me. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

Comments are now closed.