From Opus

Alternative names: Australasian Magpie, Piping Shrike (in South Australia)

Photo by Tom Tarrant
Photo taken in Samsonvale, SE Queensland, Australia

Gymnorhina tibicen

[edit] Identification

37–43 cm

• Black and white plumage (varying amounts of white according to subspecies)
• Red eyes
• Wedge-shaped bluish-white and black bill.

Juvenile: Lacks the red eye and has greyish speckled underparts
Comparison picture of G. t. hypoleuca and G. t. tibicen

Juvenile
Photo by Rose Fletcher
Goolwa, South Australia, March 2009

[edit] Distribution

Australia and New Guinea.

[edit] Taxonomy

Nine or ten subspecies are recognized for this species. Australian Magpie is not a close relative of Magpies and Jays from other parts of the world. It is a member of the Bellmagpie family and related to the Butcherbird. It has been reclassified in 2008 by Christidis & Boles as “Cracticus tibicen�.

[edit] Subspecies^[1]

Photo by aussietrev
Queensland, Australia, September 2008

• G. t. papuana:

• South-eastern New Guinea (Trans-Fly lowlands)

• G. t. eylandtensis:

• Interior of Kimberley and Arnhem Land to north-western Queensland

• G. t. terraereginae:

• Southern Cape York Peninsula to northern Victoria and eastern South Australia

• G. t. tibicen:

• South-eastern Australia (south-eastern Queensland to Bega, New South Wales)

• G. t. tyrannica:

• Southern Victoria and adjacent southeast South Australia

• G. t. hypoleuca:

• Eastern Tasmania, King and Flinders Islands (Bass Strait)

• G. t. telonucua :

• Southern South Australia to southern Eyre and Yorke Peninsulas

• G. t. dorsalis: Photo

• South-west Western Australia

• G. t. longirostris:

• Central Western Australia (Pilbara region north to King Sound)

A 10th subspecies leuconota (White-backed Magpie) is usually considered invalid^[2]

[edit] Habitat

Almost everywhere there are trees and open areas of bare soft ground or grass; orchards, playing fields, suburban areas.

[edit] Behaviour

Sedentary, locally nomadic.

[edit] Diet

The diet includes invertebrates.

[edit] Breeding

The female builds a bowl-shaped nest from sticks, lined with grass and bark. Two to five light blue or greenish eggs are laid and incubated for 20 days.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist.
2. Christidis, L. and W.E. Boles. (2008) Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.
3. Avibase
4. Wikipedia
5. BF Member Observations

• List of references

[edit] External Links

• Arthur Grosset's Birds