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Together with the Chiming Wedgebill, Chirruping Wedgebills are the smallest members of the genus Psophodes (whipbirds and wedgebills). Their plumage is light greyish-brown throughout, with a light throat patch, a slightly striated front and a somewhat darker back. Also the small crest is light grey-brown. They have thin, inconspicuous, grey eye stripes. The tail is dark grey-brown, with white-tipped sides. The eyes have dark irises. The short, stout bill is black. The legs and feet are dark-grey. Juveniles have a horn-coloured bill and a lighter front than adults.

Twitcher's tip

Except for their calls, Chirruping Wedgebills and Chiming Wedgebills are indistinguishable in the field. However, the ranges of the two species do not overlap.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Chirruping Wedgebill is available HERE .

NB: Reports on ebird of birds submitted by birdwatchers from the Australian Outback tend to be clustered along roads and public areas such as camp grounds; in such cases their distribution is not a good representation of the overall distribution of the species.

Chirruping Wedgebills are endemic to Australia. They live in the interior of the Australian continent, in the border region of the NT with QLD, NSW and SA, i.e. around the Strezlecki and Simpson Deserts. The eastern boundary of their range is the Paroo River, with Broken Hill, NSW, as the south-eastern limit. The southern limit is near Port Augusta, SA, and Lake Eyre on the western side. Towards the South-West and North-West their range extends further than Lake Eyre, to about Coober Pedy, SA, and Ghan, NT, respectively.

Chirruping Wedgebills are at home in low, e.g. acacia-dominated, scrub or open savannah.

Where to look? How to find this species?

To find Chirruping Wedgebills, one needs to look for (often prickly) shrubs in otherwise open country. A few small stands of just a few plants will often suffice to attract a mob of Chirruping Wedgebills.

Chirruping Wedgebills were first spotted by us in March 2008, just South of Broken Hill, NSW, in open scrubland.

A Chirruping Wedgebill was next seen by us again in outback NSW in September 2012, e.g. in a dry gully about 100 km East of Tibooburra.

R. Plumtree reports finding Chirruping Wedgebills along the Strzelecki track, SA, in October 2016.

A pair of Chirruping Wedgebills was found by M. Eaton and ourselves ca. 20 km westward of Cunnamulla, QLD, in June 2019.

In June 2020, M. Eaton found Chirruping Wedgebills at Thargomindah, QLD. In June 2022, they were spotted in many other locations in the Red Centre of Australia, in particular along the Strzelecki Track in SA (e.g. at the Montecollina Bore) and also at Broken Hill, NSW.