Yellow-bellied flyrobin

The yellow-bellied flyrobin (Cryptomicroeca flaviventris) is a species of passerine bird in the Australasian robin family Petroicidae. It is the only species in the genus Cryptomicroeca. The yellow-bellied flyrobin is endemic to New Caledonia, where it occurs on the island of Grande Terre. It occupies a range of habitats, including dry lowlands, woodland, Pinus and Pandanus forest, and humid forest from sea level up to 1,525 m (5,000 ft).

Yellow-bellied flyrobin
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Petroicidae
Genus:	Cryptomicroeca Christidis, Irestedt, Rowe, Boles & Norman, 2012
Species:	C. flaviventris
Binomial name
Cryptomicroeca flaviventris (Sharpe, 1903)
Synonyms
Eopsaltria flaviventris Microeca flaviventris

Taxonomy

The yellow-bellied flyrobin was described in 1860 by the French ornithologists, Jules Verreaux and Oeillet des Murs, from a specimen collected in New Caledonia. They coined the binomial name Eopsaltria flavigastra.^[2] The English ornithologist, Richard Bowdler Sharpe, realised that the specific epithet was preoccupied, and in 1903 he proposed flaviventris as a replacement.^[3] The species was long considered one of the yellow robins of the genus Eopsaltria.^[4] However, a 2009 genetic study showed it to be nested within the flyrobin genus Microeca,^[5] and hence it was moved to Microeca, and its common name was changed from yellow-bellied robin to yellow-bellied flyrobin in the online list of world birds maintained by Frank Gill and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithological Committee (IOC).^[6] A more comprehensive genetic study of the family Petroicidae, published in 2011, found that the yellow-bellied flyrobin was divergent from the other members of Microeca, and instead was sister to a clade containing the Microeca and the torrent flyrobin.^[7] The yellow-bellied flyrobin is now placed as the only species in the genus Cryptomicroeca that was introduced in 2012.^[6][8]

Description

The yellow-bellied robin is a medium-sized Australasian robin, 14–15 cm (5.5–5.9 in) in length and weighing around 12 g (0.42 oz). The plumage is similar to members of the genus Eopsaltria: dark olive-grey back, tail and wings, grey head and chest with a slightly lighter throat, and yellow belly and rump. The legs are grey.