Gerygone
Gerygone, the gerygones or peep-warblers, is a genus of bird in the family Acanthizidae. 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".
The genus contains nineteen species including one which is now extinct:
- Brown gerygone, Gerygone mouki
- Grey gerygone, Gerygone igata
- Norfolk gerygone, Gerygone modesta
- Lord Howe gerygone, Gerygone insularis – extinct
- Chatham gerygone, Gerygone albofrontata
- Fan-tailed gerygone, Gerygone flavolateralis
- Brown-breasted gerygone, Gerygone ruficollis
- Golden-bellied gerygone, Gerygone sulphurea
- Rufous-sided gerygone, Gerygone dorsalis
- Mangrove gerygone, Gerygone levigaster
- Plain gerygone, Gerygone inornata
- Western gerygone, Gerygone fusca
- Dusky gerygone, Gerygone tenebrosa
- Large-billed gerygone, Gerygone magnirostris
- Biak gerygone, Gerygone hypoxantha – previous a subspecies of G. magnirostris
- Yellow-bellied gerygone, Gerygone chrysogaster
- Green-backed gerygone, Gerygone chloronota
- White-throated gerygone, Gerygone olivacea
- Fairy gerygone, Gerygone palpebrosa
