57-591: Artamidae is a family of passerine birds found in Australia, the Indo-Pacific region, and Southern Asia. It includes 24 extant species in six genera and three subfamilies: Peltopsinae (with one genus, Peltops ), Artaminae (with one genus containing the woodswallows ) and Cracticinae ( currawongs and butcherbirds , including the Australian magpie ). Artamids used to be monotypic , containing only
114-415: A syrinx , artamids are able to create subtle songs; those of the pied butcherbird , the pied currawong and the Australian magpie are particularly notable. Uniquely among other perching birds, some woodswallows possess special feathers called powder down . The tips of the barbules on powder down feathers disintegrate, forming fine particles of keratin , which appear as a powder, or "feather dust", among
171-427: A 51 cm (20 in) wingspan and weight of around 120 g (4 oz). The wings are fairly long, extending to half-way along the tail when folded. Its plumage is almost wholly black and white, with very little difference between the sexes. It has a black head, nape and throat, giving it the appearance of a black hood, which is bounded by a white neck collar, which is around 3.2 cm (1.2 in) wide. The black hood
228-519: A base colour of various shades of pale greyish- or brownish-green. Larger clutches have been recorded, such as at Jandowae in Queensland, where two pairs laid eggs and were sharing incubation duties. Eggs of subspecies nigrogularis are larger, at around 33 mm long by 24 mm (1.3 by 0.95 in) wide, while those of subspecies picatus are around 31 mm long by 22 mm (1.2 by 0.85 in) wide. Incubation takes 19 to 21 days, with
285-554: A lack of widespread consensus within the scientific community for extended periods. The continual publication of new data and diverse opinions plays a crucial role in facilitating adjustments and ultimately reaching a consensus over time. The naming of families is codified by various international bodies using the following suffixes: The taxonomic term familia was first used by French botanist Pierre Magnol in his Prodromus historiae generalis plantarum, in quo familiae plantarum per tabulas disponuntur (1689) where he called
342-440: A mated pair sometimes assisted by several helper birds. The troop is territorial, defending the nesting site from intruders. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed the pied butcherbird as being of least concern on account of its large range and apparently stable population. The pied butcherbird was first described by the ornithologist John Gould in 1837 as Vanga nigrogularis . The type specimen
399-661: A more extensive dark brown throat. Its bill is blue-grey with a dark brown or blackish tip. The pied butcherbird has been considered the most accomplished songbird in Australia, its song described as a "magic flute" by one writer, richer and clearer than the Australian magpie. Song melodies vary across the continent and no single song is sung by the whole population. There is no clear demarcation between simple calls and elaborate songs: duets, and even larger choirs, are common. The species improvises extensively in creating new and complex melodies. One of its calls has been likened to
456-404: A prominent hook at the end. The juvenile pied butcherbird has dark brown instead of black plumage, lacks the pale collar and has a cream to buff lores, chin, and upper throat, becoming more brown on the lower throat and breast. Its underparts are off-white to cream. The bill is dark brown. In its first year, it moults into its first immature plumage, which resembles that of the juvenile, but has
513-468: A sharp projection along the upper mandible, with a corresponding notch on the lower mandible. This hook-like tooth is used to catch and fatally sever the bodies of insects, lizards and small mammals. A trait of artamids (and all passerines) is that they possess an anisodactyl foot arrangement: three toes are directed forward and one toe directed backward, enabling them to perch on horizontal objects such as tree branches and power lines. Because they possess
570-425: A variety of different habitats including rainforest, woodland, coastal scrub, watercourses, playing fields, pastoral land and paperbarks. Some species have adapted to urban landscapes where they contend with fragmented and degraded remnants of native vegetation. Artamids are a diverse family showing a notable variation in size and shape. They range in size from the short stocky Fiji woodswallow Artamus mentalis and
627-555: Is a songbird native to Australia . Described by John Gould in 1837, it is a black and white bird 28 to 32 cm (11 to 12.5 in) long with a long hooked bill. Its head and throat are black, making a distinctive hood; the mantle and much of the tail and wings are also black. The neck, underparts and outer wing feathers are white. The juvenile and immature birds are predominantly brown and white. As they mature their brown feathers are replaced by black feathers. There are two recognised subspecies of pied butcherbird. Within its range,
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#1732792961816684-550: Is an alternative common name, as are Break o'day boy and organbird. Leach also called it the black-throated crow shrike, a name used by Gould for subspecies nigrogularis while calling subspecies picatus the pied crow-shrike. ‘Jackeroo’ is a colloquial name from the Musgrave Ranges in Central Australia . Gould recorded Ka-ra-a-ra as a name used by indigenous people of Darwin . The Ngarluma people of
741-423: Is believed to serve two purposes: retaining body heat during cooler weather and as a social form of camouflage. Another unusual behaviour exhibited by an artamid is the swooping on humans by Australian magpies. While there is not much information on this behaviour, previous studies have suggested that magpie attacks on humans may be strongly influenced by hormone levels. For example, recent investigations indicate that
798-693: Is carnivorous, and eats insects such as beetles, bugs, ants, caterpillars, and cockroaches, as well as spiders and worms. It preys on vertebrates up to the size of such animals as frogs, skinks, mice, and small birds such as the silvereye ( Zosterops lateralis ), house sparrow ( Passer domesticus ), double-barred finch ( Taeniopygia bichenovii ), willie wagtail ( Rhipidura leucophrys ), and grey teal ( Anas gracilis ) duckling. It has been looked upon favourably by farmers as it hunts such pests as grasshoppers and rodents. Some individuals look for scraps around houses and picnic sites, and can become tame enough to be fed by people, either by hand or by tossing food in
855-499: Is commonly referred to as the "walnut family". The delineation of what constitutes a family— or whether a described family should be acknowledged— is established and decided upon by active taxonomists . There are not strict regulations for outlining or acknowledging a family, yet in the realm of plants, these classifications often rely on both the vegetative and reproductive characteristics of plant species. Taxonomists frequently hold varying perspectives on these descriptions, leading to
912-536: Is found across eastern Australia, and subspecies picatus is found in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and northern South Australia. The latter subspecies has a broader (3.7 cm (1.5 in) wide) white collar and a more whitish rump, with specimens becoming smaller in the more northern parts of the range. The border between the two subspecies lies in the Gulf Country and is known as
969-546: Is less common in mallee scrub . In arid areas and northern Australia, it is more restricted to woodland alongside rivers and billabongs . It has become more common in southwest Western Australia with land clearing, though has become rare around Darwin on account of urban development. The pied butcherbird is listed as being a species of least concern by the IUCN , on account of its large range and stable population with no evidence of any significant decline. The pied butcherbird
1026-570: Is not found in the northeast of the state, nor on the Adelaide plain. It is found across Western Australia, though is absent from the Great Sandy Desert . It is generally sedentary across most of its range, with minimal seasonal movements. It is a bird of open sclerophyll forests, eucalypt and acacia woodlands and scrublands, with sparse or no understory , or low cover with shrubs such as Triodia , Lomandra or Hibbertia . It
1083-485: Is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy . It is classified between order and genus . A family may be divided into subfamilies , which are intermediate ranks between the ranks of family and genus. The official family names are Latin in origin; however, popular names are often used: for example, walnut trees and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae , but that family
1140-427: Is slightly glossy in bright light, can fade a little with age, and is slightly duller and more brownish in the adult female. The neck collar in the female is slightly narrower at around 2.5 cm (1 in) and is a grey-white rather than white. Several stiff black bristles up to 1.5 cm (0.5 in) long arise from the lower lores . The upper mantle and a few of the front scapulars are white, contrasting sharply with
1197-404: Is sung more commonly in wet or windy weather, the singer sitting in a tree warbling soft and complex harmonies for up to 45 minutes, often mimicking many other bird species as well as dogs barking, lambs bleating or even people whistling. In the breeding season, pied butcherbirds sing the breeding song at night until dawn, when they switch to the day song. This song is longer and more complex than
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#17327929618161254-466: Is thought to be monogamous, though its breeding habits have not been much studied. There is evidence of cooperative breeding , with some mated pairs being assisted by up to several other helper birds. These individuals help feed young and defend the nest. These pairs or small groups defend their territory from intruders, mobbing and chasing raptors and other birds, and occasionally dogs or people. They may attack animals (and people) that venture too close to
1311-485: The Genera Plantarum of George Bentham and Joseph Dalton Hooker this word ordo was used for what now is given the rank of family. Families serve as valuable units for evolutionary, paleontological, and genetic studies due to their relatively greater stability compared to lower taxonomic levels like genera and species. Pied butcherbird The pied butcherbird ( Cracticus nigrogularis )
1368-431: The ashy woodswallow Artamus fuscus , both of which are around 19 centimetres (7.5 in) in length and weigh about 40 grams (1.4 oz), to the larger grey currawong Strepera versicolour , which measures up to 50 cm (20 in) and weighs up to 440 g (16 oz). The beaks of artamids are strong and robust, sometimes known as a generalist beak. Like falcons , some of the subfamily Cracticinae possess
1425-480: The superfamily Malaconotoidea , a lineage which is widespread through Australasia and consists of a vast diversity of omnivorous and carnivorous songbirds . The family Artamidae has been divided over time into two subfamilies. With few studies and dispute on the inclusion of Cracticidae within the family Artamidae, it appears they have been placed in this respective joint position due to lack of evidence or knowledge. Jerome Fuchs and colleagues extensively analysed both
1482-530: The Carpentarian Barrier. Although there is a demarcation in physical characters, this is not borne out genetically, and birds from northwestern Australia have affinities with the eastern subspecies. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences indicates the pied butcherbird has expanded rapidly from many refugia during the Pleistocene . The pied butcherbird is one of six (or seven) members of
1539-468: The air. The pied butcherbird also eats fruit, such as those of sandpaper figs ( Ficus coronata ), native cherry ( Exocarpos cupressiformis ), African boxthorn ( Lycium ferocissimum ) and grapes ( Vitis vinifera ), and nectar of the Darwin woollybutt ( Eucalyptus miniata ). The pied butcherbird often perches on a fencepost, stump or branch while foraging for prey. It generally pounces on victims on
1596-411: The basis of smaller and larger size than the nominate subspecies respectively. Both are now regarded as inseparable from the nominate subspecies. Mathews described subspecies kalgoorli from Kalgoorlie in 1912 on the basis of its longer bill than the nominate subspecies, but is regarded today as part of subspecies picatus . Two subspecies are recognised today. The nominate subspecies nigrogularis
1653-405: The black lower mantle and the rest of the scapulars. The rump is pale grey, and the upper tail coverts are white. The tail is rather long, with a rounded or wedge-shaped tip. It has twelve rectrices , which are black in colour. The tail tip and outer wing feathers are white. The underparts are white. The eyes are a dark brown, the legs grey and the bill a pale bluish grey tipped with black, with
1710-584: The construction of roads. These barriers cause population stresses and species can become vulnerable to localised extinction. Habitat loss and fragmentation can force species into urbanised habitats that impose their own dangers such as cars. Roadkill is considered to contribute significantly to the population decline of many bird species, especially opportunistic feeders like the Artimidae, which often unconsciously swoop down on an insect without seeing an oncoming car. In Australia introduced species have caused
1767-513: The dance 'Bird Song' by Siobhan Davies , the main central solo was accompanied by the call of a pied butcherbird and this same sound provided inspiration to much of the dance, including the improvisational aspects. Composer and researcher Hollis Taylor has studied pied butcherbird song for 12 years, and has released a double CD called Absolute Bird based on fifty-plus pied butcherbird nocturnal solo songs. Taylor's 'Is Birdsong Music? Outback Encounters with an Australian Songbird' offers portraits of
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1824-455: The day song. In response to threats, pied butcherbirds may chatter or make a harmonic alarm call composed of short, loud descending notes. The black hood helps distinguish the pied butcherbird from other butcherbirds, the Australian magpie and much smaller magpie-lark, the latter of which also has a much smaller beak. It has a higher-pitched call than the grey butcherbird and inhabits more open habitat. The juvenile pied butcherbird resembles
1881-495: The eggs laid up to 48 hours apart and hatching at a similar interval. Like all passerines , the chicks are altricial —they are born naked or sparsely covered in down and blind. They spend anywhere from 25 to 33 days in the nest before fledging, though may leave the nest early if disturbed. They are fed by parents and helper birds. Brood parasites recorded include the pallid cuckoo ( Cacomantis pallidus ) and channel-billed cuckoo ( Scythrops novaehollandiae ). The pied butcherbird
1938-568: The family Cracticidae in 1914 by John Albert Leach after he had studied their musculature. American ornithologists Charles Sibley and Jon Ahlquist recognised the close relationship between woodswallows and the butcherbirds in 1985, and combined them into a Cracticini clade , which became the family Artamidae in 1994. "Pied butcherbird" has been designated the official name by the International Ornithological Committee (IOC). Black-throated butcherbird
1995-540: The family as a rank intermediate between order and genus was introduced by Pierre André Latreille in his Précis des caractères génériques des insectes, disposés dans un ordre naturel (1796). He used families (some of them were not named) in some but not in all his orders of "insects" (which then included all arthropods ). In nineteenth-century works such as the Prodromus of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle and
2052-412: The feathers and spread when preening. The plumage of the artamids is relatively dull, most birds showing a combination of greys, earthy browns, blacks and patches of white. There is seldom sexual dimorphism in plumage, but when it occurs the males are brighter and the females appear dull or resemble juveniles. In many species juveniles have a distinctly duller plumage. The notarium , a fused vertebra of
2109-504: The genus Cracticus , known colloquially as butcherbirds. Within the genus, it is most closely related to the Tagula butcherbird ( C. louisiadensis ) and hooded butcherbird ( C. cassicus ). The three form a monophyletic group within the genus, having diverged from ancestors of the grey butcherbird around five million years ago. The butcherbirds , Australian magpie ( Gymnorhina tibicen ) and currawongs ( Strepera spp.) were placed in
2166-454: The greatest number of extinctions. Exotic feral animals such as cats can have a negative effect on artamids. Ground-foraging species such as the magpie often fall prey to cats in urban environments. There are three subfamilies with six genera and 24 species. In 2013 a molecular study showed the Australian magpie to be the sister taxon to the black butcherbird. Family (biology) Family ( Latin : familia , pl. : familiae )
2223-620: The grey butcherbird: it has a buff upper throat and dark brown instead of black plumage. The pied butcherbird is found across much of Australia, excepting the far south of the mainland, and Tasmania. It is only rarely recorded in the Sydney Basin , and absent from the Illawarra , Southern Tablelands and south coast of New South Wales. In Victoria it is found along the Murray Valley and west of Chiltern . In South Australia it
2280-426: The ground and eats them there. At times, it may hop or run along hunting ground-based food, and occasionally seize flying insects. It generally forages alone, or occasionally in pairs. The pied butcherbird has been observed hunting collaboratively with the Australian hobby , either picking off common starlings or rufous-throated honeyeaters disturbed by the larger hobby, or flushing out small birds from bushes, which
2337-659: The ground or swoop down from the mid-story pouncing on their food. Being accomplished in extractive foraging is another trait of the Artamidae; although they are opportunistic feeders they are very methodical foragers, often following a set routine. With developments occurring more regularly the most critical threat to the artamids is habitat destruction and habitat fragmentation . This loss of habitat reduces vegetation corridors (connective parcels of vegetation) that are used for feeding, breeding and safely travelling. After fragmentation, habitats are often too small or are limited by
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2394-522: The larger bird then hunts. The pied butcherbird sometimes stores food items by impaling them on a stick or on barbed wire, or shoving them in a nook or crevice. Several Australian and international composers have been inspired by and written music incorporating the songs of the pied butcherbird, including Henry Tate , David Lumsdaine (who described it as "a virtuoso of composition and improvisation"), Don Harper , Olivier Messiaen , Elaine Barkin , John Rodgers , Ron Nagorcka , and John Williamson . In
2451-783: The mitochondrial and nuclear DNA of the artamid family. The results suggested that the group may have existed in Australasia for 33.7 to 45 million years, dating back to the late Eocene Kurrartapu is a fossil species known from a proximal tarsometatarsus from the Early Miocene at Riversleigh in central Queensland. It was around the same size as the black butcherbird and had features in common with Strepera and Cracticus . Artamid species occur throughout Australasia with most species occurring in Australia and New Guinea . The social interactions of artamids vary from
2508-443: The native eastern spinebill Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris or the introduced house sparrow Passer domesticus . The evolution of vertical feeding zones (feeding strategies subdividing into vertical space, e.g. upper, mid- and ground canopy) is noted among the Artamidae. While species will sometimes overlap vertical terrains, most woodswallows use the upper canopy, feeding on insects and pollen, while magpies and currawongs tend to use
2565-448: The nest from August till February. There are reports of breeding outside these months, however. The nest is constructed of dry sticks with a finer material such as dried grass, black roly poly ( Sclerolaena muricata ), bark and leaves forming a cup-shaped interior. It is located in the fork of a tree, often among foliage and inconspicuous. The clutch consists of two to five (most commonly three or four) oval eggs blotched with brown over
2622-680: The nest, with one bird coming front-on while the other may approach from behind. The maximum age recorded from banding has been 22 years 1.7 months, for an individual banded in Rockhampton in June 1988 and recovered in August 2010–7 km away. The bird was injured and had to be euthanased. Across most of its range, the pied butcherbird can generally be found breeding from winter to summer; eggs are laid anywhere from July to December, but mostly from September to November, and young can be present in
2679-460: The opening bars of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony . Singing often takes place at dawn, and rarely late in the day. Pied butcherbirds sometimes sing on moonlit nights. Three types of song have been described: the day song is the most common, sung by birds alone or in pairs as a chorus or an antiphonal duet, generally over the course of the day and while the birds are in flight. It appears to promote bonding and act as communication. The whisper song
2736-416: The pied butcherbird is generally sedentary. Common in woodlands and in urban environments, it is carnivorous, eating insects and small vertebrates including birds. A tame and inquisitive bird, the pied butcherbird has been known to accept food from humans. It nests in trees, constructing a cup-shaped structure out of sticks and laying two to five eggs. The pied butcherbird engages in cooperative breeding , with
2793-575: The seventy-six groups of plants he recognised in his tables families ( familiae ). The concept of rank at that time was not yet settled, and in the preface to the Prodromus Magnol spoke of uniting his families into larger genera , which is far from how the term is used today. In his work Philosophia Botanica published in 1751, Carl Linnaeus employed the term familia to categorize significant plant groups such as trees , herbs , ferns , palms , and so on. Notably, he restricted
2850-456: The shoulder in birds that helps brace the chest against the forces generated by the wings, is a distinctive osteological trait that has evolved repeatedly in the passerines including the family Artamidae. Members of the Artamidae, especially the woodswallows, have been known to cluster together during the night and day. Accounts have appeared in literature from the earliest days of ornithological documentation in Australia. The habit of clustering
2907-505: The solitary black butcherbird , which lives alone or in a single pair, to the white-breasted woodswallow , which lives in flocks or loose colonies . While some species are sedentary, staying close to suburbia and ample food sources, others are migratory or even nomadic like the masked woodswallow , moving around in response to changes in climate such as rainfall or temperature. The range of habitats occupied varies between species, but many species are ecological generalists, and can be found in
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#17327929618162964-417: The stress hormone corticosterone may cause magpie aggression and swooping. All are omnivorous to some degree: the butcherbirds mostly eat meat; Australian magpies usually forage through short grass looking for worms and other small creatures; currawongs are true omnivores, taking fruit, grain, meat, insects, eggs and nestlings; and woodswallows feed on insects and nectar. Most are opportunistic feeders, such as
3021-549: The use of this term solely within the book's morphological section, where he delved into discussions regarding the vegetative and generative aspects of plants. Subsequently, in French botanical publications, from Michel Adanson 's Familles naturelles des plantes (1763) and until the end of the 19th century, the word famille was used as a French equivalent of the Latin ordo (or ordo naturalis ). In zoology ,
3078-652: The western Pilbara knew it as gurrbaru . In the Yuwaaliyaay dialect of the Gamilaraay language of southeastern Australia, it is buubuurrbu . Names recorded from central Australia include alpirtaka and urbura in the Upper Arrernte language . Like other butcherbirds, the pied butcherbird is stockily built with short legs and a relatively large head. It ranges from 28 to 32 cm (11 to 12.5 in) long, averaging around 31 cm (12 in), with
3135-489: The woodswallows, but it was expanded to include the family Cracticidae in 1994. Some authors, however, still treat the two as separate families. Some species in this family are known for their beautiful song. Their feeding habits vary from nectar sucking (woodswallows) to predation on small birds (pied currawong). The family Artamidae was introduced by the Irish zoologist Nicholas Aylward Vigors in 1825. The artamids are part of
3192-414: The woodswallows, taking advantage of the flowering plants such as the silky oak Grevillea robusta , box mistletoe Amyema miquelii , and the long flowering stalks of Xanthorrhoea spp. or insects such as cockroaches or spiders eaten by the black butcherbird . Bigger species such as the grey currawong prey on many vertebrates, including frogs, lizards such as skinks, and juveniles of smaller birds such as
3249-621: Was collected near Sydney. The species name is from the Latin words niger (black), and gula (throat). Gould described Cracticus picatus in 1848 from northern Australia, calling it "A miniature representative of, and nearly allied to, but distinct from, Cracticus nigrogularis ." The word picatus is Latin for "daubed with pitch", hence "black patches. This was reclassified as a subspecies of C. nigrogularis . Gregory Mathews described subspecies inkermani from Queensland and subspecies mellori from Victoria and South Australia in 1912, on
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