#165 North Island Robin

Petroica longipes
IUCN Redlist: Not Evaluated (Least Concern)
Location: Tiritiri Matangi Island, New Zealand
Time: 1240 NZDT March 9, 2012

The North Island robin, unlike some of the other species I've posted lately, is not extremely endangered, and still persists at many locations on the mainland. Like the takahe, however, it is larger than its close relatives - reaching 35g, compared to a max of 14g for other members of its genus in Australia*.

The North Island robin was formerly classified as a subspecies of the New Zealand robin P. australis, which is the classification scheme still used by the IUCN, hence why it is not evaluated on the Redlist.

A close relative the Chatham Island or Black Robin, P. traversi, is famous for hitting a population low of just 5 birds, with only a single fertile female, before it was brought back from the brink by Don Merton and the New Zealand Wildlife Service. Some of the techniques used were first developed during the rescue and recovery of the tieke.

*According to the best figures I could find