A captivating songbird is taking centre stage this month.
The Western gerygone (pronounced jer-rig-gen-ne) graces the Goulburn Broken catchment, standing as one of 24 members of the threatened Victorian temperate woodland bird community, while adding a melodious note to the region’s biodiversity.
It’s being featured this month in the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority’s ‘Year of the wing’ community awareness campaign, celebrating birds and bats in 2024.
The Victorian temperate woodland bird community is a group of declining bird species, primarily found in drier woodlands on the slopes and plains north of the Great Dividing Range.
GBCMA project officer Janice Mentiplay-Smith said although the bird may not be colourful, it sure can sing a good tune.
“What the Western gerygone lacks in bright plumage, it makes up for with its beautiful song. The males sing to attract a mate and stake out breeding territory,” she said.
The Western gerygone and its feathery woodland companions are sustained by various food sources throughout the year, including seeds, nectar and insects.
To provide itself and its family with shelter, the Western gerygone builds a hanging bottle-shaped nest, skilfully woven from grass, bark and spider webs, that hangs from a tree branch about two metres from the ground.
Ms Mentiplay-Smith said this particular bird species had the potential to be a hero for farmers.
“As an insectivore, the Western gerygone provides a valuable ‘ecosystem service’ for farmers, such as pollination and eating pest insects,” she said.
Like many other species, the Western gerygone faces negative impacts from vegetation clearing, fragmentation, and fire frequency and intensity changes, influencing its food availability and nesting resources.
Ms Mentiplay-Smith said once upon a time, the woodlands where the Western gerygone resides were lightly timbered with a shrubby under-storey, grassy ground cover, fallen timber, large old trees, tree hollows and other nesting sites.
“It’s important that we value and protect this remaining habitat to help prevent these species from further decline,” Ms Mentiplay-Smith said.
“As well as the Goulburn Broken catchment woodlands, it’s also found in the southern half of the Northern Territory and parts of New South Wales, Queensland and South and Western Australia.
“The Western gerygone inhabits sites with a healthy under-storey, from where it can flutter from tree-top to shrub, pecking at insects and other invertebrates and dart through the air to catch a mid-air meal.”
Scan the QR code here to hear the delightful tunes of the Western gerygone.