Australia generally, but distribution is fragmented and absent over large areas, in particular from the Top End, Cape York Peninsula, most of the east coast and South Australia, eastern Western Australia and Tasmania.
Rarity Status
Currently this species is not classified as a rarity in this country OR information has not been updated.
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).
Voice
Pensive, whistling. High-pitched, violin-like notes, descending and rising, meandering in slow, in slow, drawn-out, wistful, sweet notes, but ceasing abruptly before the tune seems to complete.
Nest
Pear-shaped, with a dangling tail-piece and a hooded side-entrance near the top, compact and well-made, composed of fine bark strips and dry grass, bound with cobweb and lined with feathers, suspended from the leafy end of a slender branch about 1 - 7 meters above the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
2 or 3; matt, white to flesh, sparingingly spotted and speckled with dull red-brown, mainly at the larger end, often forming a zone; oval about 18 x 13 mm. Incubation: about 12 days; by female.
Young
Fledge in about 13 - 15 days.
Subspecies
Probably forms a species group with Mangrove Gerygone (Gerygone levigaster) and Fan-tailed Gerygone (Gerygone flavolateralis), and in past sometimes treated as conspecific with Mangrove Gerygone (Gerygone levigaster). Subspecies mungi and exsul intergrade in southern Gulf of Carpentaria region; possible clinal variation within exsul, underparts becoming whiter and white markings narrower from south to north, but complicated by poorly understood movements into range of subspecies mungi; exsul formerly included within nominate.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
fusca (Gould, 1838) - South-western WA and extending north in non-breeding season to Pilbara and southern Kimberley Divide, WA and also on southern Eyre Peninsula, SA.
mungi Mathews, 1912 - Inland central-western to north-western Australia, within an area roughly bounded by Pilbara Divide, WA in the west, southern Kimberley Divide and central NT in the north, Qld border and Simpson Desert, NT in the east and to centralian ranges in north-western SA and to Wiluna region, WA in the south.
exsul Mathews, 1912 - Inland central-eastern Australia from the base of Cape York Peninsula and the western slopes of the Great Divide, south to central Vic., and western Murray - Darling and Upper Eromanga Basins.
Similar Species
Brown Gerygone (Gerygone mouki) which has a more prominent white eyebrow and a different pattern of white on the tail, Dusky Gerygone (Gerygone tenebrosa) which has a straw-white eye and no obvious white on the tail and Mangrove Gerygone (Gerygone levigaster) which has white lines extending from and over bill and back over the eye.
Compare Images
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
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BirdLife International Species Factsheet