Strepera graculina
The Pied Currawong, Strepera graculina, is a striking and intelligent Australian passerine, often mistaken for a true crow due to its appearance but belonging to the family Artamidae, which also includes butcherbirds and Australian magpies. This medium-sized bird typically measures between 44 and 52 cm in length, with a wingspan of 72 to 85 cm and a weight ranging from 210 to 400 grams. Its plumage is predominantly glossy black or sooty-black, offset by brilliant white patches on the primary ...
Found in a diverse range of environments, primarily open eucalypt forests, woodlands, rainforest margins, and notably, urban and suburban areas including parks and gardens, typically from sea level up to moderate elevations.
Opportunistic omnivores, their diet includes a wide array of insects (grubs, beetles, cicadas), spiders, small vertebrates (lizards, frogs, nestling birds, eggs), carrion, and a significant proportion of fruits and berries, with some consumption of nectar.
Pied Currawongs are diurnal, active from dawn to dusk, often roosting communally in tall trees. They are highly opportunistic omnivores, employing a variety of foraging strategies including ground-foraging for invertebrates, gleaning insects and larvae from foliage, hawking insects in flight, and...
The Pied Currawong is endemic to eastern Australia, inhabiting a broad range that extends from far north Queensland, south through New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, to Victoria. Subspecies show some geographic variation: Strepera graculina graculina is found across New South W...
Least Concern
- Despite their crow-like appearance, Pied Currawongs are not true members of the crow and raven family (Corvidae); they belong to the Artamidae family, alongside Australian Magpies and Butcherbirds. - Their species name 'graculina' is derived from the Latin 'graculus', meaning jackdaw, reflectin...