''Gerygone'' (), the gerygones or peep-warblers, is a genus of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the family Acanthizidae. The genus ranges from

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

through

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

and the

Chatham Islands The Chatham Islands ( ) (Moriori: ''Rēkohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island. They are administered as part of New Zealand. The archipelago consists of about te ...

. Most of the species are found in Australia and New Guinea; only one, the

golden-bellied gerygone The golden-bellied gerygone (''Gerygone sulphurea'') is a species of bird in the family Acanthizidae. It is found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist ...

, has managed to cross

Wallace's Line The Wallace Line or Wallace's Line is a faunal boundary line drawn in 1859 by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace and named by English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley that separates the biogeographical realms of Asia and Wallacea, a tran ...

and colonise as far as

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

and the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. 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 The Chatham gerygone or Chatham Island warbler (''Gerygone albofrontata'') is a species of bird in the family Acanthizidae. It is endemic to the Chatham Islands. The Chatham Island warbler is larger than and differs in plumage from the related gr ...

, 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 20 species including one which is now extinct: *

Brown gerygone The brown gerygone (''Gerygone mouki''), previously known as the brown warbler, is a small passerine bird native to eastern coastal Australia. The upper parts of the brown gerygone are a deep olive-grey or olive-brown, while its face and underpar ...

, ''Gerygone mouki'' * Grey gerygone, ''Gerygone igata'' *

Norfolk gerygone The Norfolk gerygone (''Gerygone modesta'') is a species of bird in the family Acanthizidae. It is endemic to Norfolk Island. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical moist shrubland, and p ...

, ''Gerygone modesta'' *†

Lord Howe gerygone The Lord Howe gerygone or Lord Howe gerygone flyeater (''Gerygone insularis'') was a small bird in the family (biology), family Acanthizidae, brown and greyish in color. Its head was brown apart from a pale grey eye-ring and a grey throat and ch ...

, ''Gerygone insularis'' –

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

(c.1930) *

, ''Gerygone albofrontata'' * Fan-tailed gerygone, ''Gerygone flavolateralis'' *

Rennell gerygone The Rennell gerygone (''Gerygone citrina'') is a species of bird in the family Acanthizidae. It is found on Rennell Island. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the fan-tailed gerygone (''Gerygone flavolateralis''), but was split as a dist ...

, ''Gerygone citrina'' – split from ''G. flavolateralis'' *

Brown-breasted gerygone The brown-breasted gerygone or treefern gerygone (''Gerygone ruficollis'') is a species of bird in the family Acanthizidae. It is found in the highlands of New Guinea. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forest Monta ...

, ''Gerygone ruficollis'' *

Golden-bellied gerygone The golden-bellied gerygone (''Gerygone sulphurea'') is a species of bird in the family Acanthizidae. It is found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist ...

, ''Gerygone sulphurea'' *

Rufous-sided gerygone The rufous-sided gerygone (''Gerygone dorsalis'') is a species of bird in the family Acanthizidae. It is found in the eastern Lesser Sunda Islands and Kai Islands. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest A f ...

, ''Gerygone dorsalis'' * Mangrove gerygone, ''Gerygone levigaster'' *

Plain gerygone The plain gerygone (''Gerygone inornata'') is a species of bird in the family Acanthizidae. It is found on the islands of Wetar and Timor. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical mangro ...

, ''Gerygone inornata'' *

Western gerygone The western gerygone (''Gerygone fusca'') is a small, brownish-grey species of passerine bird, which is found in inland and Southwest Australia, south-west Australia. It is an arboreal, insectivore of open forest, woodland and dry shrubland. It ...

, ''Gerygone fusca'' *

Dusky gerygone The dusky gerygone (''Gerygone tenebrosa'') is a species of bird in the family Acanthizidae. It is endemic to coastal central and northern areas of Western Australia. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical mangrove forest A fores ...

, ''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 The green-backed gerygone (''Gerygone chloronota'') is a species of bird in the family Acanthizidae found in northern Australia and New Guinea. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest A forest is an area of ...

, ''Gerygone chloronota'' *

White-throated gerygone The white-throated gerygone (''Gerygone olivacea'') is a species of bird in the family Acanthizidae. It is found in Australia and Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), offici ...

, ''Gerygone olivacea'' * Fairy gerygone, ''Gerygone palpebrosa''

References

* 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. *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 *

External links

Bird genera Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Acanthizidae-stub