| Ground cuckoo-shrike | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Campephagidae |
| Genus: | Coracina |
| Species: | C. maxima |
| Binomial name | |
| Coracina maxima (Rüppell, 1839) | |
The ground cuckoo-shrike (Coracina maxima) is an uncommon bird species endemic to Australia, occurring mainly in open woodland and arid grasslands throughout inland Australia, [2] but also occasionally in areas on the east coast. [3]
Coracina maxima is one of 81 species in the family Campephagidae, 7 of which occur in Australia. [2] The family can be divided into 2 groups, one of which contains 13 of the 81 species, and occur only in Asia. The other group, which includes genus Coracina (cuckoo-shrikes, cicadabirds and trillers), occurs in Africa, southern and Southeast Asia, Australia and islands in the west Pacific. [2] Occurring in Australia are four species of cuckoo-shrike. The black-faced cuckoo-shrike (Coracina novaehollandiae) is a common species that occurs throughout all of Australia. [3] The white-bellied cuckoo-shrike (Coracina papuensis) is uncommon and only occurring in the northern parts of the Northern Territory, as well as most of Queensland, Victoria and eastern New South Wales. [3] The barred cuckoo-shrike (Coracina lineata) is a rare species and only occurs along the east coast of Queensland, and parts of the NSW coast. [3] These three cuckoo-shrikes all occur in other countries including Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. [3] The ground cuckoo-shrike is an uncommon species and is endemic to Australia, occurring in parts of all the mainland Australian states and territories. [2]
The ground cuckoo-shrike is a slender, long-legged bird, [3] the largest of the cuckoo-shrikes measuring 33–37 cm in length, [4] and weighing approximately 115 g. [2] It was named cuckoo-shrike not because it is affiliated with either the cuckoo or the shrike, but because of the similar features that it has to both these birds. [2] The stout, hooked shrike-like beak and plumage which is similar to that of the cuckoo are the reason for its name. [2]
The adult bird possesses a pale grey head and upper body, with pale yellow eyes. [3] Its lower back, rump and underparts are white and finely barred with black, contrasting with the black wings and the slightly forked black tail. [3] This forked tail is a characteristic specific to the ground cuckoo-shrike. [4] The immature ground cuckoo-shrike is similar in appearance to the adult, but has fine, broken black barrings on the throat and upper parts and dark eyes with a dark eye-line, instead of a black mask with pale yellow eyes. [3] The flight call of this bird is a distinctive pee-ew, pee-ew or chill-chill….kee-lik, keelick. [5] Due to the colouration of the ground cuckoo-shrike, when in flight they can look quite black-and-white and so may be mistaken for an Australian magpie. [6]
The distribution of the ground cuckoo-shrike is widespread across Australia, mainly occurring in Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory and in some parts of Victoria. [7] They occur mostly inland of the Great Dividing Range [3] in Australia's semi-arid regions, [2] but also occur in areas on the east coast. [3] They have been found to occur in areas of open woodland, arid shrub-land [7] and open grasslands that are dominated by dead trees and species such as mulga, cypress-pine and mallee-spinifex. [3] Ground cuckoo-shrikes are more likely to occur in these habitats if they are located near watercourses, floodplains, creeks and wetlands. [3] Because of the location of the preferred habitats, they are more frequently found in inland areas rather than coastal regions. [6] Various reports have recorded their presence in woodland areas located on river channels and floodplains, [8] mulga shrubland [9] and cleared woodland regrowth areas. [10]
Despite their large range throughout Australia, they are an uncommon species, thinly distributed and probably nomadic, which can make it hard to predict their location and where they can be expected to be seen. [4] The current population trend of the ground cuckoo-shrike is said to be decreasing, possibly due to declines in the Murray-Mallee region since the mid 1970s. [11] Dolby and Clarke (2014) clearly lists and describes places where the ground cuckoo-shrike can be expected to be spotted. [7]
The ground cuckoo-shrike, as its name suggests, mainly feeds on the ground, [5] being adapted to this kind of feeding with their long legs and the ability to run quickly along the ground. [12] They spend a lot of their time foraging on bare open ground in small groups [4] for their food, which consists of mainly on insects. [12] Their diet includes adult and larval arthropods such as praying mantis, grasshoppers, locust, ants and spiders. [13]
Ground cuckoo-shrikes are generally encountered in small groups of three or more. [12] This is possibly because the young stay in the family group until the next breeding season, sometimes helping to feed the new young. [6] They make their nests on branches or forks of trees 3 to 15 m high, with bark, grass, stems and other material, [3] or use the old nests of magpie-larks or white-winged chough. [14]
The breeding season is from August to November, [3] with the birds forming monogamous pairs and laying between two and five eggs in the nest, which is sometimes shared with other females, as more than one female are known to lay eggs in the same nest during the same breeding season. [2] The eggs are a glossy olive colour with brown/red-brown markings on them. [3]
Though the population of the ground cuckoo-shrike is decreasing, its conservation status is classed as least concern. [1] In 2013, it was listed as vulnerable in Victoria under the Advisory List of Threatened Vertebrate Fauna in Victoria 2013. [15]
A possible threat to the ground cuckoo-shrike is the increase in woody vegetation density. This would benefit most woodland bird species, but in the case of the ground cuckoo-shrike which dwells in open woodland habitats, it could have a detrimental effect on its population. [16]
The striated pardalote is the least colourful and most common of the four pardalote species. Other common names include pickwick, wittachew and chip-chip. It is a very small, short-tailed bird that is more often heard than seen, foraging noisily for lerps and other small creatures in the treetops.
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The striped honeyeater is a passerine bird of the honeyeater family, Meliphagidae, found in Australia. It is a medium-sized honeyeater, about 23 cm (9.1 in) in length. Both sexes are a light greyish brown with dark brown centres to the feathers, which give the appearance of stripes. The stripes are particularly distinct on the head and back of the neck. While it is found mainly in inland eastern Australia where it inhabits the drier open forest, it is also found in coastal swamp forest from southeast Queensland to the central coast of New South Wales.
The splendid fairywren is a passerine bird in the Australasian wren family, Maluridae. It is also known simply as the splendid wren or more colloquially in Western Australia as the blue wren. The splendid fairywren is found across much of the Australian continent from central-western New South Wales and southwestern Queensland over to coastal Western Australia. It inhabits predominantly arid and semi-arid regions. Exhibiting a high degree of sexual dimorphism, the male in breeding plumage is a small, long-tailed bird of predominantly bright blue and black colouration. Non-breeding males, females and juveniles are predominantly grey-brown in colour; this gave the early impression that males were polygamous as all dull-coloured birds were taken for females. It comprises several similar all-blue and black subspecies that were originally considered separate species.
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The black-eared cuckoo is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. Found across Australia, it migrates to eastern Indonesia and southern New Guinea. They are usually observed by themselves or in a pair as they don't raise their own young, rather they leave eggs in another species nest to be raised by host.
The chestnut-rumped thornbill is a small passerine bird in the family Acanthizidae, endemic to Australia.
The striated grasswren is a small, cryptically coloured ground-dwelling species of wren-like bird in the family Maluridae, endemic to Australia. It occupies a large discontinuous range across arid and semi-arid areas of western, central and southern Australia where it is associated with spinifex (Triodia) grass.
The rufous fieldwren also known as the desert wren or sandplain wren is a species of insectivorous bird in the family Acanthizidae, endemic to Australia.
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The chestnut quail-thrush is a native Australian bird of the family Cinclosomatidae. These scrub birds are endemic to Australia and found in all states - barring Tasmania. They are relatively uncommon and are isolated to the semi-arid and arid fringes of the Australian interior.
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The western yellow robin is a species of bird in the Australasian robin family, Petroicidae, native to Australia. Described by John Gould in 1838, the western yellow robin and its Australian relatives are not closely related to either the European or American robins, but they appear to be an early offshoot of the Passerida group of songbirds. Ranging between 13.5 and 15.5 cm long, it has grey upperparts, and a grey breast and head, broken by whitish streaks near the bill and below the eye, with a conspicuous yellow belly. The sexes are similar in appearance. Two subspecies are recognized: subspecies griseogularis, which has a yellow rump, and subspecies rosinae with an olive-green rump.
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