| Lord Howe Gerygone | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Acanthizidae |
| Genus: | Gerygone |
| Species: | G. insularis |
| Binomial name | |
| Gerygone insularis Ramsay, 1879 |
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| Synonyms | |
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The Lord Howe Gerygone (Gerygone insularis), also known as the Lord Howe Island Flyeater or, locally, as the "Rain-bird" or "Pop-goes-the-weasel",[1] was a small bird in the Acanthizidae family which was endemic to Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea, part of New South Wales, Australia. It was quite small, brown and greyish; its head was brown apart from a pale grey eye-ring and a grey throat and chin, many parts of the animal varied to the colour of yellow, this being apparent in its bright yellow belly. A pregnant Lord Howe Gerygone would lay a clutch of three pink-tinged, brown-speckled eggs in a domed nest made up of dry bark, fibres, leaves, grass, moss and wool wrapped together with a spider web suspended from a twig. It was abundant in the forests of the island until the early 20th century. There have been no records of the species since 1928 and it is considered to be extinct. Its extinction is almost certainly due to predation by Black Rats which were accidentally introduced to the island in 1918 following the shipwreck of the SS Makambo there.[2]