Pied Currawong

42-50 cm. Male larger. Black bird with robust black bill, yellow eyes, white window in the wing, white base to tail feathers, white undertail-coverts/tail tips. Note that in sw. Vic., white markings in wings and at base of tail are smaller than on e. coast. Female: greyer. Immature: grey-brown; breast mottled; feathers have paler edges; has less white; eye dark. Singles, pairs, autumn/winter flocks. Noisy, especially in rough weather; forages on ground, trunks, limbs, in foliage. Flies with deep, lapping wingbeats/swoops; silhouette flat, showing small-to-large white base to tail feathers - the only currawong so marked. Droops wings on alighting, sometimes cocks tail. Tame around settlement, picnic areas, ski villages. In winter, noisy communal roosts.