White-faced robin

White-faced robin
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1) [1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Petroicidae
Genus:	Eopsaltria
Species:	E. leucops
Binomial name
Eopsaltria leucops (Salvadori, 1876)
Synonyms
Tregellasia leucops

The white-faced robin (Eopsaltria leucops) is a species of bird in the Australasian robin family Petroicidae. It is found in New Guinea and eastern Cape York Peninsula of Queensland, Australia. ^[2] Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest. This species was formerly placed in the genus Tregellasia.

Taxonomy

The white-faced robin was formally described in 1876 as Leucophantes leucops by the Italian zoologist Tommaso Salvadori based on a specimen collected in the Arfak Mountains on the Bird's Head Peninsula of New Guinea. ^{[3] [4]} The specific epithet combines the Ancient Greek λευκος/leukos meaning "white" with ωψ/ōps, ωπος/ōpos meaning "face" or "eye". ^[5] The white-faced robin was formerly placed in the genus Tregellasia, ^{[4] [6]} but based on a 2011 molecular genetic study by Les Christidis and coworkers, Tregellasia was merged into a more broadly defined Eopsaltria . ^{[7] [8]}

Ten subspecies are recognised: ^[8]

• E. l. leucops (Salvadori, AT, 1876) – mountains of Bird's Head Peninsula (western New Guinea)
• E. l. mayri (Hartert, EJO, 1930) – New Guinea (Wandammen and Weyland mountains)
• E. l. heurni (Hartert, EJO, 1932) – New Guinea (Weyland Mountains and upper Mamberano River)
• E. l. nigroorbitalis (Rothschild, LW & Hartert, EJO, 1913) – New Guinea (Nassau and Snow mountains)
• E. l. nigriceps (Neumann, OR, 1922) – New Guinea (Victor Emanuel and Snow mountains)
• E. l. melanogenys (Meyer, AB, 1893) – northern New Guinea (Cyclops Mountains to Aicora River)
• E. l. wahgiensis (Mayr, E & Gilliard, ET, 1952) – mountains of eastern New Guinea
• E. l. albifacies (Sharpe, RB, 1882) – mountains of southeastern New Guinea
• E. l. auricularis (Mayr, E & Rand, AL, 1935) – lowlands of southern New Guinea (Orimo River region)
• E. l. albigularis (Rothschild, LW & Hartert, EJO, 1907) – northeastern Australia (northeastern Cape York Peninsula, northern Queensland)

References

1. BirdLife International (2016). "Tregellasia leucops". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016 e.T22704843A93988154. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22704843A93988154.en . Retrieved 11 November 2021.
2. "Species profile—Tregellasia leucops (white-faced robin)". Species information. Queensland Government. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
3. Salvadori, Tommaso (1875). "Descrizione di cinquantotto nuove specie di uccelli, ed osservazioni intorno ad altre poco note, della Nuova Guinea e di altre Isole Papuane, raccolte dal Dr. Opoarpo Reccari e dai cacciatori del Sig. A.A. Bruijn". Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova (in Italian and Latin). 7 (published 1876): 896–976 [921].
4. Mayr, Ernst; Cottrell, G. William, eds. (1986). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 11. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. pp. 569–570.
5. Jobling, James A. "leucops". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 12 November 2025.
6. Dickinson, E.C.; Christidis, L., eds. (2014). The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. Vol. 2: Passerines (4th ed.). Eastbourne, UK: Aves Press. p. 260. ISBN   978-0-9568611-2-2.
7. Christidis, L.; Irestedt, M.; Rowe, D.; Boles, W.E.; Norman, J.A. (2011). "Mitochondrial and nuclear DNA phylogenies reveal a complex evolutionary history in the Australasian robins (Passeriformes: Petroicidae)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 61 (3): 726–738. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2011.08.014.
8. AviList Core Team (2025). "AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025". doi: 10.2173/avilist.v2025 . Retrieved 13 November 2025.

External links

• Media related to Tregellasia leucops at Wikimedia Commons