White-winged Chough
Corcorax melanorhamphos· 澳鸦科(2 photos)
Photographed In:
Locations:
White-winged Chough
43-47 cm. Note: the name is pronounced 'chuff '. Gregarious black bird, smaller than a raven, with a full, mobile, black tail and large round white patch on flight-feathers, conspicuous in flight. Bill black, slender, arched; eye orange-red; legs longish, black. Immature: smaller; tail shorter; eye brown. Highly sociable: parties of 5-10; in autumn-winter, where food plentiful, up to 100+. Feeds mostly on ground, moving ahead in spread-out formation, running to share a food-discovery; swaggers with back-and-forward head motion, tail raised/lowered. Dust-bathes; indulges in anting. When disturbed, flies noisily to cover with quick flaps/glides on flat wings, large white wingpatches prominent; climbs branches in flying bounds.
- Other name
- Black Jay or Magpie.
- Similar Species
- Pied Currawong: bill more robust; eye yellow; prominent white on base of tail, undertail-coverts, tail tips. Ravens/crows: all black; bills more robust; tails shorter; eye white in adults.
- Voice
- mournful, mellow, descending whistles; when alarmed, grating 'hass'; small throaty clicks.
- Habitat
- drier forests, woodlands of eucalypts, incl. mallee; belar, cypress pine, mulga; timber on watercourses; introduced pines; crops, pastures, homestead gardens, lawns, poultry-runs, outer suburbs.
- Breeding
- Aug.-Dec.
- Nest
- large bowl of mud, other material, incl. manure; bound/lined with shredded bark, grass, fur; on horizontal branch, to 6 m+; sometimes on old nest of babbler, corvid. Members of territorial group build nest, co-operate in incubation, feeding young.
- Eggs
- 3-5; up to 9 when more than one female lays; creamy white; blotched brown, lilac.
- Range & Status
- e. and se. mainland Aust.: from Charters Towers (ne. Q) inland to Longreach-Idalia NP-Hungerford; most NSW except far nw.; most Vic. except denser forests and cleared, closely settled coastal areas; widespread in s. SA s. of Flinders Ras., w. to near Tarcoola and along coast of Gt Aust. Bight, w. to c. Eucla. (In WA, unconfirmed sight records near Eyre Highway c. Madura-Cocklebiddy.) Common; patchy; reduced by loss of habitat. Sedentary; locally nomadic.
- Distribution key to races
- 1. Corcorax melanoramphos melanoramphos 2. Corcorax melanoramphos whiteae
