In East Gippsland we are always excited to find a Crested Shrike-tit as they are somewhat uncommon in this region, but across the whole range of the Eastern Shrike-tit sub-species (Falcunculus frontatus, they vary from rare to common in optimum habitat. There are two other sub-species, Western and Northern.
We discovered they can be common on a recent BirdLife East Gippsland Autumn Camp based in Chiltern in late March 2026, when camp participants were delighted to encounter them in a number of locations and habitats.
The following survey records from Birdata (1) reveal the difference in abundance between the two areas:
Birdata BirdLife East Gippsland East Gippsland regional group area, total surveys 51,000, Crested Shrike-tit records 766.
Birdata Ovens Murray regional group area, which covers the autumn camp locations, total surveys 48,553 (a similar survey effort to East Gippsland), Crested Shrike-tit records 2,885.
The ratio is 766/2,885 or 1 to 3.77 - therefore in suitable/optimum habitat, especially Mt Pilot National Park box-ironbark woodland, we are nearly 4 times as likely to come across a Crested Shrike-tit in the Ovens Murray region than in East Gippsland. It is always nice when the data confirms the “in-the-field” experience.
The following photos are of two males from two locations in the Chiltern area - note the black throat, the females have an olive-green throat. The powerful black bill is used to glean invertebrate food from bark and rotting wood so they are often detected by the sound of shredding bark.
NOTE: You can left click on any photo to open a slide show of the photos free of text or a right click enables one photo at a time to be opened in a New Tab where an enlarged version can be viewed.
The bird in the following photo shows a hint of the crest which is not often seen fully raised.
As the photos reveal, Crested Shrike-tits are strikingly beautiful birds, which goes someway to explaining why finding them is always special, irrespective of their local abundance.
NOTE 1: Birdata is BirdLife Australia’s national database for bird survey records. Here is a link to Birdata – you will need to create an account to access the database if you do not already have one. A smart phone version for recording surveys in the field is available at the App Store .
