Enquiry re status of Brown Gerygone in the Melbourne region

Just a follow up comment on the distribution of Brown Gerygone’s in Victoria. George Appleby and myself have documented the westward (Victoria) extension in range of the species. If you check your old bird guides you’ll see that Sale was often identified as the western edge of the Brown Gerygone’s range. In our Australian Field Ornithology paper George and I have shown that the species is now found throughout the Strzeleckis, a few locations on Wilson’s Promontory and across to the eastern edges of Melbourne, most commonly reported from the Dandenong’s. Interestingly recent field guide editions have picked up this change and provide a better description of the species Victorian range now. The birds distinctive ‘which-is-it’, which-is-it’ rapid call is very helpful in detecting its presence. It’s well worth reporting these observations as it helps us better understand that Brown Gerygone’s appear to now occupy a slightly broader range of habitats than was initially thought. Indeed I detected a single bird in banksia woodland south of Tarra Bulga National Park a few years ago. This site was within a few kilometres of (Strzeleckis) Warm Temperate Rainforest where it has been more often recorded. For anyone who would like a copy of our paper let me know and I’ll forward. cheers, Martin O’Brien Melbourne REF: Appleby, G. & O’Brien, M. (2015) An expansion of the range of the Brown Gerygone in Victoria, 1977–2009. Australian Field Ornithology 32: 26–37 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A week ago a very good young visiting birder from the US fairly confidently identified a Brown Gerygone in the Dandenong’s from both good views and song (unfortunately his ID photo is not good enough to assist in confirming his sighting). My understanding from range maps, atlases and personal experience is that the western limit of this species’ range in Victoria is well east of Melbourne. Can anyone comment on the likelihood of this sighting, please. Richard Nowotny