Enquiry re status of Brown Gerygone in the Melbourne region

Hi James. Further to Martin O’Brien’s post on this species (hopefully not too much overlap with this post), I’m interested in your Birding-aus post. I got the impression that the birds were irregularly recorded in the Dandenongs (i.e. not every year for the past decade or two), being based on reported sightings. This does not prove that they are resident or always present in the region and moving around. From the very earliest westward records, they seem to have been eruptive and to have attempted to breed way outside their previous normal range (taken as being up to Mitchell River or East Gippsland generally). To me, it’s fascinating to know if the birds have made repeated attempts to establish in westward areas and whether they wandered back to their previous range or died out, in some cases to be replaced by further wandering birds. How or why a rainforest specialist did this is of significant interest. In the Bunyip area, the BGs do appear to be present in most if not all recent years and may be resident – all the records from Steve Davidson and others seems to show this. This potential or probable residency is not surprising given the number of records over a few decades from Glen Nayook Reserve near Neerim South. There are a scattering of fill-in records of BGs in the foothills of the Great Divide between Neerim South and the Mitchell River but no apparent consistency of occurrence. However, BGs are well entrenched in the Strzeleckis (with many records from many locations over a few decades. Surveys by local field naturalists show them to be very well settled in at some locations e.g. Foster and Uralla, in some cases being recorded in all seasons and/or breeding, being excellent evidence that they are resident and not seasonally wandering. My own observations at Lilly Pilly Gully at Wilson’s Promontory since at least 2009 (following the initial record by Max Breckenridge) show them to be present on every visit at any time of the year. If birders are recording them regularly and in all seasons in the Dandenongs or anywhere else west of Mitchell River, please log the records on any database or Atlas and let me or Martin O’Brien (see email above) know. Martin and I may get around to further document the range extension of BGs in Victoria. Cheers, George.