Cracticinae

{{Short description|Subfamily of birds}}

{{redirect|Bellmagpie|the species to which this name has sometimes been applied|Australian magpie}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| image = Piedbutcherbird.jpg

| image_caption = Pied butcherbird (Cracticus nigrogularis)

| taxon = Cracticinae

| authority = Chenu & des Murs, 1853

}}

The Cracticinae, bellmagpies and allies, gathers together 12 species of mostly crow-like birds native to Australasia and nearby areas.

Historically, the cracticines – currawongs, Australian magpie and butcherbirds – were seen as a separate family Cracticidae and, according to the 2018 Cements List, they still are.{{Cite web|url=http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/august-2018/|title = August 2018 | Clements Checklist}} With their 1985 DNA study, Sibley and Ahlquist recognised the close relationship between the woodswallows and the butcherbirds in 1985, and placed them in a Cracticini clade,{{cite journal|doi=10.1071/MU9850001|vauthors=Sibley CG, Ahlquist JE |year=1985|title=The phylogeny and classification of Australo-Papuan passerine birds|journal=Emu|volume=85|issue=1|pages=1–14|bibcode=1985EmuAO..85....1S |url=http://www.publish.csiro.au/?act=view_file&file_id=MU9850001.pdf|accessdate=2009-04-15}} now the family Artamidae.{{cite book |title=Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds|vauthors=Christidis L, Boles WE |year=2008 |publisher=CSIRO Publishing |location=Canberra |isbn=978-0-643-06511-6 |page=196}} The two species of peltops were once placed with the monarch flycatchers but are now placed here.{{cite journal|last=Sibley |first=CG|author2=JE Ahlquist |year=1984|title=The relationships of the Papuan genus Peltops|journal=Emu|volume=84|issue=3|pages=181–183 | doi = 10.1071/MU9840181 |bibcode=1984EmuAO..84..181S }}

The cracticines have large, straight bills and mostly black, white or grey plumage. All are omnivorous to some degree: the butcherbirds mostly eat meat; Australian magpies usually forage through short grass looking for worms and other small creatures; and currawongs are true omnivores, taking fruit, grain, meat, insects, eggs and nestlings. The female constructs bulky nests from sticks, and both parents help incubate the eggs and raise the young thereafter.{{cite book |editor=Forshaw, Joseph|author= Howley, Ian|year=1991|title=Encyclopaedia of Animals: Birds|publisher= Merehurst Press|location=London|pages= 226–227|isbn= 1-85391-186-0}}

The cracticines, despite their fairly plain, utilitarian appearance, are highly intelligent and have extraordinarily beautiful songs of great subtlety. Particularly noteworthy are the pied butcherbird, the pied currawong and the Australian magpie.