Text extracted from Gill B.J.; Bell, B.D.; Chambers, G.K.; Medway, D.G.; Palma, R.L.; Scofield, R.P.; Tennyson, A.J.D.; Worthy, T.H. 2010. Checklist of the birds of New Zealand, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands, and the Ross Dependency, Antarctica. 4th edition. Wellington, Te Papa Press and Ornithological Society of New Zealand. Pages 275, 279, 301-302 & 305-306. Order PASSERIFORMES: Passerine (Perching) Birds See Christidis & Boles (2008) for a review of recent studies relevant to the higher-level systematics of the passerine birds. Suborder PASSERES (or POLYMYODI): Oscines (Songbirds) The arrangement of songbirds in the 1970 Checklist (Checklist Committee 1970) was based on the premise that the species endemic to the Australasian region were derived directly from Eurasian groups and belonged in Old World families (e.g. Gerygone and Petroica in Muscicapidae). The 1990 Checklist (Checklist Committee 1990) followed the Australian lead in allocating various native songbirds to their own Australasian families (e.g. Gerygone to Acanthizidae, and Petroica to Eopsaltriidae), but the sequence was still based largely on the old Peters-Mayr arrangement. Since the late 1980s, when the 1990 Checklist was finalised, evidence from molecular biology, especially DNA studies, has shown that most of the Australian and New Zealand endemic songbirds are the product of a major Australasian radiation parallel to the radiation of songbirds in Eurasia and elsewhere. Many superficial morphological and ecological similarities between Australasian and Eurasian songbirds are the result of convergent evolution. Sibley & Ahlquist (1985, 1990) and Sibley et al. (1988) recognised a division of the songbirds into two groups which were called Corvida and Passerida (Sibley & Ahlquist 1990). The Parvorder Corvida contained songbirds with Australasian affinities—nearly all the endemic New Zealand songbirds plus the introduced Australian magpie. The Parvorder Passerida contained songbirds with Old World affinities— nearly all the songbirds introduced to New Zealand, plus one endemic genus (Bowdleria) and a few native songbirds (e.g Hirundo, Zosterops). Recent studies (e.g. Barker et al. 2004, Cracraft et al. 2004) partly supported the distinction between Corvida and Passerida, but questioned the monophyly of the Corvida. Passerida is now thought not to be the sister group to Corvida but to be embedded within it (see detailed discussion by Christidis & Boles 2008) with Petroica added to the list of native Australasian passeridans. The following arrangement of New Zealand songbirds is based largely (and where relevant) on the sequence justified by Christidis & Boles (2008). It is an interim scheme which is likely to change in future checklists with further research on songbird phylogeny. Recent improvements in techniques to eliminate or control mammalian predators on islands, or in defined mainland areas, mean that some of the New Zealand endemic songbirds are being translocated (re- introduced) to growing lists of localities at which predators are controlled. This is extending the ranges of the species concerned —ranges that were shrinking. Many of the more recent transfers are not mentioned in the species accounts because several years must pass before the viability of a given transfer can be assured. “PASSERIDA”: Eurasian and New World Songbirds The families recognised within Passerida, and their sequence, follow Christidis & Boles (2008) except for the Prunellidae, which they did not cover. Petroica is now seen as a passeridan genus rather than a corvidan one, for the reasons discussed by Christidis & Boles (2008). Niethammer (1971) attempted to assign subspecific attributions to all the populations of European songbirds established in New Zealand. However, in some cases this is problematical for a list of reasons discussed by Checklist Committee (1990: xii), and until more work is done on these taxa some are best named at just the binomial level. Family PETROICIDAE Mathews: Australasian Robins Petroicinae Mathews, 1920: Birds Australia. 8: 80 – Type genus Petroica Swainson, 1830. Genus Petroica Swainson The order of New Zealand taxa follows Checklist Committee (1990), which recognised three New Zealand species following Fleming (1950a,b). Miller & Lambert (2006) analysed mtDNA sequences of New Zealand populations of Petroica. Their study supported the specific status of the black robin, and supported the separation of North and South Island robins at the specific level. The North Island robin is considerably smaller than its South Island congener, with marked plumage differences, as detailed in the major study by Fleming (1950a,b). We have given them specific rank, but the Stewart Island / Rakiura population is poorly distinguished, both genetically (Miller & Lambert 2006) and morphologically, and is retained here as a subspecies of the South Island robin. Miller & Lambert (2006) recommended retaining the tomtit populations as subspecies; the greatest genetic distinction, in the sequences they studied, was for the Chatham Island tomtit rather than the melanistic Snares Island tomtit. Given this, we have retained the status quo (Checklist Committee 1990) with the tomtit taxa kept as subspecies, pending further data. Fleming’s hypothesis (1950a,b) that the black robin is an insular derivative of the mainland robins, was not supported by Miller & Lambert (2006), who found that it grouped strongly with the tomtit instead. If upheld by further data (such as sequences from other genes) this could mean the removal of P. traversi from the subgenus Miro to the subgenus Petroica. Hamilton (1909: 15) listed “Petroeca vittata, Quoy et Gaim. (Dusky Robin.)”, as a species present in New Zealand. That species, currently known as Melanodryas (Amaurodryas) vittata (Quoy & Gaimard, 1830), is endemic to Tasmania (Green 1989: 58) and has not been recorded in New Zealand. Hamilton’s “Petroeca vittata” is almost certainly a misidentification. Subgenus Miro Lesson Miro Lesson, 1831: Traité d’Ornith. 5(1): 389 – Type species (by monotypy) Muscicapa longipes Garnot = Petroica (Miro) longipes (Lesson). Myioscopus Reichenbach, 1850: Avium Syst. Nat.: pl. 67 – Type species (by monotypy) Muscicapa longipes Garnot = Petroica (Miro) longipes (Garnot). Nesomiro Mathews & Iredale, 1913: Ibis 1 (10th ser.): 440 – Type species (by original designation) Miro traversi Buller = Petroica (Miro) traversi (Buller). Petroica (Miro) australis (Sparrman) South Island Robin South Island plus Stewart Island / Rakiura and its outliers. Petroica (Miro) australis australis (Sparrman) South Island Robin Turdus australis Sparrman, 1788: Mus. Carlsonianum 3: no LXIX, pl. 69 – Dusky Sound, Fiordland. Turdus albifrons Gmelin, 1789: Syst. Nat., 13th edition 1(2): 882. Based on the “White-fronted Thrush” of Latham 1783, Gen. Synop. Birds 2(1): 71 – Dusky Sound, Fiordland. Miro albifrons (Gmelin); G.R. Gray 1843, in E. Dieffenbach, Travels in N.Z. 2: 190. Aplonis australis (Sparrman); G.R. Gray 1843, in E. Dieffenbach, Travels in N.Z. 2: 192. Petroica albifrons (Gmelin); G.R. Gray 1844, in Richardson & J.E. Gray (eds), Zool. Voy. ‘Erebus’ & ‘Terror’, Birds 1(3): 7, pl. 6, fig. 2. Turdus ochrotarsus J.R. Forster, 1844: in M.H.C. Lichtenstein, Descrip. Animalium: 82 – Dusky Sound, Fiordland. Muscicapa saxicolina Bonaparte, 1851: Consp. Gen. Avium 1: 300 – New Zealand. Muscicapa albifrons (Gmelin); Ellman 1861, Zoologist 19: 7465. Myioscopus albifrons (Gmelin); Finsch 1872, Journ. für Ornith. 20: 112. Miro ochrotarsus (J.R. Forster); Buller 1896, Trans. Proc. N.Z. Inst. 28: 337. Miro albifrons (Gmelin); Buller 1905, Suppl. Birds N.Z. 2: 120. Miro bulleri Sharpe, 1905: in Buller, Suppl. Birds N.Z. 2: 123 – Karamea Saddle, north West Coast. Miro australis bulleri Buller [sic]; Mathews & Iredale 1913, Ibis 1 (10th ser.): 439. Miro australis australis (Sparrman); Mathews & Iredale 1913, Ibis 1 (10th ser.): 439. Miro australis (Sparrman); Oliver 1930, New Zealand Birds, 1st edition: 466. Petroica (Miro) australis australis (Sparrman); Checklist Committee 1990, Checklist Birds N.Z.: 210. Petroica australis (Sparrman); Holdaway et al. 2001, New Zealand Journ. Zool. 28(2): 138, 180. South Island: native and older exotic forests especially in the northern third of the island and the south- west (Fiordland); otherwise of restricted and local distribution. Widely distributed Holocene fossil and midden records, several outside the present range. Petroica (Miro) australis rakiura C.A. Fleming Stewart Island Robin Petroica (Miro) australis rakiura C.A. Fleming, 1950: Trans. Roy. Soc. N.Z. 78(1): 141 – Jacques Lees [= Jacky Lee] Island, off east coast of Stewart Island. Miro australis rakiura (C.A. Fleming); Oliver 1955, New Zealand Birds, 2nd edition: 489. Stewart Island / Rakiura and outliers (e.g. Jacky Lee Island (Pukeokaoka) and Green Island). .