Black Robin

Black Robin
: Animalia : Chordata : Aves : Passeriformes : Petroicidae : Petroica : traversi
Binomial name
Petroica traversi (Buller, 1872)

The Black Robin or Chatham Island Robin is an endangered bird from the Chatham Islands off the east coast of New Zealand. It is closely related to the New Zealand Robin.

Petroica traversi is a sparrow-sized bird. Its plumage is almost entirely brownish-black, unlike its mainland counterparts. In the early 1980s only five Black Robins survived but were saved from extinction by Don Merton and his team, and by "Old Blue", the last remaining female. All of the surviving black robins are descended from "Old Blue", unfortunately giving little genetic variation among the population and creating a genetic 'bottleneck'. The species is still endangered, but now numbers around 250 individuals.