Pink Robin
The Bird I Didn't Believe
For years, I didn't believe the Pink Robin was really pink.
I'd seen countless photographs of them, each showing the same vivid pink chest, but I always assumed the camera had exaggerated the colour. Surely no bird could be that pink.
Then I moved back to Tasmania.
As I began exploring the forests around northern Tasmania with my camera, one place kept appearing whenever people spoke about birdwatching: Notley Fern Gorge. If you wanted to see a Pink Robin, this was where to go.
So one cool morning, we packed the camera and drove out from Launceston.
The rainforest was beautiful. Towering tree ferns filtered the morning light, moss covered every fallen log, and the air carried the fresh scent of damp earth. It was the kind of place that made you slow down and pay attention.
We wandered beneath the canopy, watching Grey Fantails dart between the trees and listening to Silvereyes calling overhead. Every rustle in the undergrowth made me glance up, hoping it might be the bird we'd come to find.
But the Pink Robin remained hidden.
As the track began leading us back towards the car park, I remember thinking perhaps today simply wasn't our day.
Then, out of nowhere, something caught my eye.
A tiny flash of pink crossed the path.
I stopped instantly.
For only a second, a small bird appeared from behind a moss-covered tree before disappearing back into the rainforest.
That was all I saw.
But it was enough.
The colour wasn't red.
It wasn't orange.
It was unmistakably pink.
A rich, vibrant pink that seemed to glow against the deep greens of the forest.
At that moment, every photograph I'd ever doubted suddenly made perfect sense.
If anything, the camera had failed to capture just how extraordinary the colour looked in real life.
I haven't seen another Pink Robin since that morning at Notley Fern Gorge.
Perhaps that's what makes the memory so special.
Some of the most memorable wildlife encounters last only a few seconds.
The Pink Robin was the bird I didn't believe.
Until I did.
From the Bird Collection
That fleeting encounter at Notley Fern Gorge later inspired my Pink Robin gouache painting and the first Feather & Perch Bird Postcard.