Australian Warblers: Acanthizidae

Australian warblers are distributed throughout Australia, New Guinea, and New Zealand, including the Chatham Islands. They are also found in Indonesia and South East Asia.

Australian warblers occur in many different habitats throughout their distribution area including, mangroves, rainforests, eucalyptus (yoo-kah-LIP-tus) forests and woodlands, shrub lands, and desert.

Most of this family captures small invertebrates, animals without backbones, from the foliage, twigs, branches, and trunks, picking their prey with their long and slender bills. They eat primarily small insects, but occasionally some species eat seeds and fruits.

Humans do not often take notice of this small, drab bird, though the songs of some species are definitely well-known. With many exhibiting such cryptic behavior, bird watching can be difficult, which is one reason that it has taken so long to identify so many of the species.