Gerygone  

Gerygone, the gerygones or peep-warblers, is a genus of bird in the Acanthizidae family. The genus ranges from Southeast Asia through New Guinea and Australia to New Zealand and the Chatham Islands. Most of the species are found in Australia and New Guinea; only one, the golden-bellied gerygone, has managed to cross Wallace's Line and colonise as far as Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Gerygones are insectivores which obtain most of their food by gleaning and snatching in the foliage of trees and bushes. They are small, mostly weighing an average of 6–7 g, and show little variation in size across their range, except for the insular Chatham gerygone, which is nearly twice as large as the rest of the genus.

Their songs are described as "simple but delightful", many descending in pitch, and some species are excellent mimics. "Gerygone" means "born of sound" (Magrath 2003).

The genus contains the following species:

• Chatham gerygone, Gerygone albofrontata
• Green-backed gerygone, Gerygone chloronota
• Yellow-bellied gerygone, Gerygone chrysogaster
• Ashy gerygone, Gerygone cinerea
• Rufous-sided gerygone, Gerygone dorsalis
• Fan-tailed gerygone, Gerygone flavolateralis
• Western gerygone, Gerygone fusca
• Grey gerygone, Gerygone igata
• Plain gerygone, Gerygone inornata
• Lord Howe gerygone, Gerygone insularis – extinct (c.1930)
• Mangrove gerygone, Gerygone levigaster
• Norfolk gerygone, Gerygone modesta
• White-throated gerygone, Gerygone olivacea
• Fairy gerygone, Gerygone palpebrosa
• Brown-breasted gerygone, Gerygone ruficollis
• Golden-bellied gerygone, Gerygone sulphurea
• Dusky gerygone, Gerygone tenebrosa
• Brown gerygone, Gerygone mouki
• Large-billed gerygone, Gerygone magnirostris
  • Biak gerygone, Gerygone magnirostris hypoxantha

References[edit]

• Del Hoyo, J.; Elliot, A. & Christie D. (editors). (2006). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 12: Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-84-96553-42-2
• Keast, A. & Recher, H. (1997) "The adaptive zone of the genus Gerygone (Acanthizidae) as shown by morphology and feeding habits." Emu 97(1): 1-17
• Magrath, Robert. (2003). "Australian Warblers". In Perrins, Christopher. The Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds. Firefly Books. pp. 470–471. ISBN 1-55297-777-3. 

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