S.G., Canadian.

Australia has pink robins, yellow robins, red robins and "uncoloured" grey or brown robins without any bright colours on their chests.

There is also the hooded robin, in which the male is black and white. There are 15 species in all, with seven in the Ballarat district. The locals are the scarlet, eastern yellow, flame, red-capped, hooded, pink and rose.

All these birds are in the flycatcher group, a different family from European and American robins, which are thrushes. These northern hemisphere birds are rusty red, rather than the brilliant red of our scarlet and flame robins. Autumn is the main time for increased sightings of "robin redbreasts".