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Rookery
Pied Butcherbird, a uncommon bird in Roost
  • Pied Butcherbird, profile

    Profile

  • Pied Butcherbird, in flight

    In flight

Songbirds

Pied Butcherbird

Cracticus nigrogularis

  • uncommon
  • 45 km/h
  • Least Concern

Impales lizards on barbed wire like a serial fencer. Its liquid, flute-like song fills the outback at dawn.

Population
Not precisely quantified by BirdLife/IUCN in accessible sources; qualitatively described as having a large range with a stable population and no evidence of significant decline (consistent with widespread/locally common status across mainland Australia)
Habitat
Open sclerophyll forests, eucalypt and acacia woodlands, and scrublands with sparse or no understory; in arid northern parts of its range restricted to woodland along rivers and billabongs; less common in mallee scrub.
Fun fact
The Pied Butcherbird is renowned as one of Australia's most accomplished songbirds, producing complex, flute-like improvised melodies and mimicking other birds, dogs, and even human whistling.
Range
Endemic to Australia, occurring across most of the mainland (Queensland, Northern Territory, all of Western Australia except the Great Sandy Desert, South Australia, and northward Victoria along the Murray Valley); absent from Tasmania and from the far south-east (Sydney Basin, Illawarra, Southern Tablelands, and NSW south coast).
Diet
Carnivorous generalist: insects (beetles, bugs, ants, caterpillars, cockroaches), spiders and worms, plus small vertebrates such as frogs, skinks, mice and small birds; also takes fruit and nectar from native plants.
Size
0.31 m
Wingspan
0.51 m
Lifespan
22 years

More Songbirds

The next 12 of the 278 in the collection, after this one.