Taxonomy
The Flame Robin was first described by the French naturalists Jean René Constant Quoy and Joseph Paul Gaimard in 1830 as Muscicapa chrysoptera. The specific epithet, "chrysoptera", is derived from the Ancient Greek words chrysos "golden", and pteron "feather".
John Gould placed the Flame Robin in its current genus as Petroica phoenicea in his 1837 description, and it was this latter binomial name that has been used since that time. Given this, Quoy and Gaimard's name was declared a nomen oblitum. The generic name is derived from the Ancient Greek words petros "rock" and oikos "home", from the birds' habit of sitting on rocks. The specific epithet is also derived from Ancient Greek, from the adjective phoinikos "red". It is one of five red- or pink-breasted species colloquially known as "Red Robins", as distinct from the "Yellow Robins" of the genus Eopsaltria. Although named after the European Robin, is not closely related to it or the American Robin. The Australian robins were placed in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae, and the whistler family Pachycephalidae, before being classified in their own family Petroicidae, or Eopsaltridae. Sibley and Ahlquist's DNA-DNA hybridisation studies placed the robins in a Corvida parvorder comprising many tropical and Australian passerines including pardalotes, fairy-wrens and honeyeaters as well as crows. However, subsequent molecular research (and current consensus) places the robins as a very early offshoot of the Passerida, or "advanced" songbirds, within the songbird lineage.
No subspecies are recognised, and the degree of geographic variation is unclear. Adult male birds which breed on the mainland have been reported as having lighter upperparts and underparts than their Tasmanian relatives, and females are said to be browner, but these differences may also result from worn plumage. Furthermore, migration across the Bass Strait by some birds obfuscates the issue. Mainland and Tasmanian birds are the same size. Ornithologists Richard Schodde and Ian Mason argued that the poor quality of museum collections and partially migratory habits meant that discrete subspecies could not be distinguished on the basis of the observed variation within the species.
Flame-breasted Robin was the common name formerly used for the species, and it was gradually abbreviated to Flame Robin. Other names recorded include Bank Robin, Redhead, and (inaccurately) Robin Redbreast.
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