Medium-small gerygone with distinctive male plumages. Male nominate race has forehead, side of head and throat to upper breast black, crown and nape olive, prominent white loral spot and conspicuous white malar patch; upperwing and tail browner; underparts yellow; iris bright red of orange-red; bill black; legs slate-grey to black. Female lacks dark head markings, has pale eyering, white throat and yellow breast. Juvenile is like female but with entirely yellow undetaits, dark brownish iris and paler brownish bill. Races differ mainly in darkness of head and breast coloration of male: wahnesi has crown, nape and side of head black; inconspicua is like previous, but has crown and nape olive, upperparts duller and darker than in nominate; tarara like previous, but has black areas of head to upper breast tinged brownish; personata has crown and side of head dark olive, clear dusky or blackish bib; flavida is distinctive, male more like female, lacks dark head pattern, has fainter facial markings, greyish-yellow to pale yellow throat, upperparts brighter than previous.
Not Threatened
Medium-small gerygone with distinctive male plumages. Male nominate race has forehead, side of head and throat to upper breast black, crown and nape olive, prominent white loral spot and conspicuous white malar patch; upperwing and tail browner; underparts yellow; iris bright red of orange-red; bill black; legs slate-grey to black. Female lacks dark head markings, has pale eyering, white throat and yellow breast. Juvenile is like female but with entirely yellow undetaits, dark brownish iris and paler brownish bill. Races differ mainly in darkness of head and breast coloration of male: wahnesi has crown, nape and side of head black; inconspicua is like previous, but has crown and nape olive, upperparts duller and darker than in nominate; tarara like previous, but has black areas of head to upper breast tinged brownish; personata has crown and side of head dark olive, clear dusky or blackish bib; flavida is distinctive, male more like female, lacks dark head pattern, has fainter facial markings, greyish-yellow to pale yellow throat, upperparts brighter than previous.
10 – 11.5 cm; 8g
Taxonomy: Gerygone palbebrosa Wallace, 1865, Aru Islands. Sometimes thought that New Guinea races represent one species and Australian personata and flavida two further species, but last two intergrade in NE Queensland (from about Cooktown S to Townsville). Six subspecies recognized. (source: Handbook of the Birds of World)
Subspecies and Distribution:
- * palpebrosa Wallace, 1865 - W New Guinea (including West Papua Is) and Aru Is. * wahnesi (A. B. Meyer, 1899) - Yapen I and N New Guinea. * tarara Rand, 1941 - S New Guinea from R Morehead E to R Fly. * inconspicua E. P. Ramsay, 1878 - SE New Guinea E from upper R Fly. * personata Gould, 1866 - NE Queensland (Cape York Peninsula S to R Mitchell and Townsville area), in NE Australia. * flavida E. P. Ramsay, 1877 - coastal C Queensland from about Cooktown S to Gin Gin.
Edges of tropical rainforest and ecotone between that and other habitats, vine thickets (e.g. at 40 Mile Scrub, in Queensland), and dense riparian habitats, from coast to hills. Lowland and especially hill forest, locally to c. 1460 m, in New Guinea; often along tracks, and also on small offshore forested islets such as Bird 1, off Madang (NE New Guinea).
Insectivorous; no details of items. Seen mostly singly, in pairs or in small parties of up to five individuals, probably family groups. Active and arboreal, foraging in foliage of trees, vines and shrubs from canopy down to near ground, most often in middle to upper levels. Most insects taken from leaves and bark, but also by sallying; frequently mutual chasing (perhaps associated with display). A core member of mixed-species flocks, in New Guinea joins flocks with Chestnut-bellied Fantail (Rhipidura hyperythra), Northern Fantail (Rhipidura rufiventris), Monarcha monarch-flycattchers, Wallace's Wren (Sipodotus wallacii), Spangled Drongo (Dicrurus hottentottus), Hooded Pitohui (Pitohui dichrous) and G. chrysogaster; recorded in Australia with Lovely Fairy-wren (Malurus amabilis), Sericornis beccarii and Sericornis magnirostra, monarch-flycatchers (Monarcha, Arses, Myiagra), Grey (Rhipidura albiscapa) and Rufous Fantails (Rhipidura rufifrons), Pale-yellow robin (Tregellasia captio), Yellow-breasted Boatbill (Machaerirhynchus flaviventer), Little Shrike-thrush (Colluricincla megarhyncha), Grey Whistler (Pachycephala simplex), Yellow White-eye (Zosterops luteus), Silvereye (Zosterops lateralis) and Victoria's Riflebird (Ptiloris victoriae).
Birds in breeding condition in Oct (at end of dry season) in New Guinea; breeding recorded in jul-May in Australia. Nest reported as built sometimes by both sexes, or by female alone, an elongated dome, with bottleneck-line entrance near top protected by projecting hood, made of palm fibre, bark, plant fibre, spider egg sacs, spider webs, cocoons, lichen and moss, with dry excreta of wood-boring insects incorporated in “tail” beneath, lined with soft seed down or other soft plant material, suspended from slender branch in outer foliage of tree or shrub or in lawyer-vines (Calamus), sometimes near water, in Australia often close to wast (Hymenoptera) nest (presumably for some protective advantage); likely to be site-faithful. Clutch 1 – 3 eggs, usually 2, white or faintly pinkish, finely freckled purplish-red, mainly in band around larger end; incubation probably by female only; chicks evidently fed by both sexes, those of nominate race predator function; no information on duration of incubation and fledging periods. Nests parasitised by Shining (Chrysococcyx lucidus) and Little Bronze-cuckoos (chrysococcyx minutillus).