Acanthizidae

This moderate-sized family with almost 70 species consists of small, active insectivores that are largely confined to Australia and New Guinea. Formerly simply called “warblers”, the gerygones are the only genus in the family that successfully crossed the seas beyond the western margin of the Australian tectonic plate known as Weber’s Line. Two forms became stranded on Timor and islands to the east, and evolved into endemic species, while a third form colonized much further west, crossing Wallace’s Line. The latter form became the Golden-bellied Gerygone or “Flyeater”, whose modern range extends right across Indonesia and into mainland Asia as far west as Vietnam. Gerygones are birds of the forest canopy and mid-stage, where they glean and snatch small insects and spiders from foliage and small twigs. Their neatly-woven globular nests have a hood covering their entrance at the side, and often a characteristic “tail”. Suspended from the ends of branches, they are very similar to those of the unrelated sunbirds. Flight:  Fast flapping. Shallow undulating

Gerygone sulphurea

Gerygone sulphurea

Gerygone sulphurea