Black-faced Cuckooshrike
Coracina novaehollandiae
Large slender bird, pale gray above, paler below, with distinctive black mask and throat. Immature paler, with dark gray mask rather than black face. Dark-morph White-bellied Cuckooshrike has more extensive black in face as adult, lacks mask in light morph and as immature. Often shuffles wings after landing. Inhabits many wooded habitats with clearnings, farmland, and urban areas with trees from Indonesia to Australia. Call is a worried-sounding, rattling trill.
Identification
Adult birds have a prominent black face and throat, grey plumage, white underparts and a somewhat hooked bill. The size varies between 32 cm and 34 cm. They are slow-moving, inconspicuous birds, with a shrill, screaming call, sounding like creearck.
Taxonomy
The black-faced cuckooshrike was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the thrushes in the genus Turdus and coined the binomial name Turdus novaehollandiae. Gmelin based his description on the "New Holland thrush" that had been described in 1783 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book A General Synopsis of Birds. Lathan had examined a specimen in the collection of the naturalist Joseph Banks that had come from Adventure Bay in southern Tasmania. Adventure Bay had been visited by Captain James Cook in January 1777 on his third voyage to the Pacific Ocean. A painting of the black-faced cuckooshrike by William Ellis that was made during this visit is in the collection of the Natural History Museum in London. In 1921 Gregory Mathews recognised that Gmelin's Turdus novaehollandiae and Latham's "New Holland thrush" corresponded to the black-faced cuckooshrike. It is now one of 22 species placed in the genus Coracina that was introduced in 1816 by French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot.<p>Three subspecies are recognised:<p>The Yindjibarndi people of the central and western Pilbara know the species as julgira; they would clip their wings and keep them as pets.
- Scientific name
- Coracina novaehollandiae
- Authority
- (Gmelin, JF, 1789)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Campephagidae
- Genus
- Coracina
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Behavior
The diet consists of insects, their larvae, caterpillars or other invertebrates. These may be caught in flight, or caught when searching through the foliage. In addition, some fruits and seeds are also eaten.<p>Breeding season is chiefly from August to February each year. Both partners build the rather small nest. The fledglings leave the nest after about three weeks of hatching. They look like the adults, except the black facial mask is reduced to an eye stripe.<p>Outside the breeding season, they like to flock in groups of up to a hundred birds. Some may be partially migratory or they may remain in the same territory. Lack of significant differences between regional populations in Australia makes it difficult to determine where populations move in winter.
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Knob-billed Duck
Sarkidiornis melanotos
Large bicolored waterbird. Both sexes are iridescent purplish-green above with a white or buffy breast. Males have a large black lump on the bill, gray flanks and whitish belly, whereas females have a plain bill and gray flanks. Note all dark wings. Occurs throughout much of Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. Found in freshwater rivers, lakes, and marshes where it is usually uncommon. Normally silent.
Scarlet-thighed Dacnis
Dacnis venusta
Small and striking tanager with very sharp bill. Male superficially similar to Blue Dacnis but most of body black; head, back, and shoulder electric turquoise-blue. Red eye. Scarlet “thighs” inconspicuous and difficult to see in the field. Female less obvious than male; note turquoise face contrasting with buffy belly. Usually stays in the canopy of forest edges; pairs often follow mixed feeding flocks.
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