Currawong

Ornithologist Richard Bowdler Sharpe held that currawongs were more closely related to crows and ravens than the Australian magpie and butcherbirds, and duly placed them in the Corvidae.{{cite book|last=Sharpe|first=Richard Bowdler|title=Catalogue of the Passeriformes, or Perching Birds, in the Collection of the British Museum. Coliomorphae containing the families Corvidae, Paradisaeidae, Oriolidae, Dicruridae, and Prionopidae |year=1877|publisher=by Order of the Trustees|pages=57–61|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/34310#7|author-link=Richard Bowdler Sharpe|access-date=15 May 2010|location=London}} A review of the family Cracticidae by ornithologist John Albert Leach in 1914, during which he had studied their musculature, found that all three genera were closely related.{{cite journal |last=Leach |first=John Albert |author-link=John Albert Leach |year=1914|title=The myology of the Bell-Magpie (Strepera) and its position in classification |journal=Emu |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=2–38 |doi=10.1071/MU914002|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1429902 }} Ornithologists Charles Sibley and Jon Ahlquist recognised the close relationship between the woodswallows and the butcherbirds and relatives in 1985, and combined them into a Cracticini clade,{{cite journal|author1=Sibley, Charles G. |author2=Ahlquist, Jon E. |year=1985|title=The phylogeny and classification of Australo-Papuan passerine birds|journal=Emu|volume=85|issue=1|pages=1–14|url=http://www.publish.csiro.au/?act=view_file&file_id=MU9850001.pdf|doi=10.1071/MU9850001}} which later became the family Artamidae in the official Australian checklist in 2008.{{cite book |title=Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds|url=https://archive.org/details/systematicstaxon00chri|url-access=limited|author1=Christidis, Les |author2=Boles, Walter E. |year=2008 |publisher=CSIRO Publishing |location=Canberra |isbn=978-0-643-06511-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/systematicstaxon00chri/page/n206 196]}} The International Ornithologists' Union has maintained the two clades as separate families, hence currawongs are listed along with butcherbirds, magpie and Peltops.{{cite web|url=http://www.worldbirdnames.org/n-batises.html|title=Batises to shrikes|editor=Gill, Frank|editor2=Donsker, David|date=2012|work=IOC World Bird Names (v 3.2)|publisher=International Ornithologists' Union|access-date=13 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090213113340/http://www.worldbirdnames.org/n-batises.html|archive-date=13 February 2009|url-status=dead}}

The family Cracticidae has its greatest diversity in Australia, which suggests that the radiation of its insectivorous and scavenger members to occupy various niches took place there. The butcherbirds became predators of small animals, much like the northern hemisphere shrikes, while the Australian magpie became a predominantly ground-hunting omnivore, with the currawongs generally hunting in both living and fallen trees, scavenging and hunting insects and small vertebrates, and occupying in Australia the niche of many Eurasian corvids.{{cite book|last1=Schodde |first1=Richard |last2=Mason |first2=Ian J. |year= 1999|title=The Directory of Australian Birds: Passerines. A Taxonomic and Zoogeographic Atlas of the Biodiversity of Birds in Australia and its Territories|location=Collingwood, Australia|publisher=CSIRO Publishing|page=532 |url={{GBurl|XXbJoaGF36YC|pg=PT7}} |isbn=978-0-643-10293-4}}

A 2013 genetic analysis by Anna Kearns and colleagues confirmed the currawongs are a monophyletic group, with some indication that the black currawong lineage diverged from a common ancestor of the grey and pied currawongs (though sampling was limited and not the focus of the study). The common ancestor of butcherbirds and currawongs diverged from peltops between 28.3 and 16.9 million years ago, which followed the expansion of open habitat in Australia 30 to 25 million years ago. The ancestors of currawongs then diverged from the ancestor of butcherbirds and magpie between 17.3 and 9.8 million years ago.{{cite journal|doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2012.11.020|author1=Kearns, Anna |author2=Joseph, Leo |author3=Cook, Lyn G. |year=2013|title=A multilocus coalescent analysis of the speciational history of the Australo-Papuan Butcherbirds and their allies | journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution|volume=66|issue=3|pages=941–52 |pmid=23219707}}

Currawongs and indeed all members of the broader Artamidae are part of a larger group of African shrike-like birds including bushshrikes (Malaconotidae), helmetshrikes (Prionopidae), ioras (Aegithinidae), and vangas (Vangidae), which were defined as the superfamily Malaconotoidea by Cacraft and colleagues in 2004.{{cite book |author1=Cracraft, Joel |author2=Barker F. Keith |author3=Braun, Michael |author4=Harshman, John |author5=Dyke, Gareth J. |author6=Feinstein, Julie |author7=Stanley, Scott |author8=Cibois, Alice |author9=Schikler, Peter |author10=Beresford, Pamela |author11=García-Moreno, Jaime |author12=Sorenson, Michael D. |author13=Yuri, Tamaki |author14=Mindell, David P. |veditors=Cracraft J, Donoghue MJ |title=Assembling the tree of life |url=https://archive.org/details/assemblingtreeli00crac_335 |url-access=limited |year=2004|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-517234-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/assemblingtreeli00crac_335/page/n485 468]–89 |chapter=Phylogenetic relationships among modern birds (Neornithes): toward an avian tree of life}} They are thus only distantly related to crows and ravens, which are in a separate superfamily Corvoidea.{{cite book |title=Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds|author1=Christidis, Les |author2=Boles, Walter E. |year=2008 |publisher=CSIRO Publishing |location=Canberra |isbn=978-0-643-06511-6 |page=172|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SFP9P1i-PoEC&q=Malaconotoidea&pg=PA172}}

Although there are several distinct forms, the number of species has varied between two and seven, with three currently recognised. (In 1870 the Gardens of the Zoological Society of London had a living specimen of each of the three species.{{cite journal|title=Sooty Crow-shrike|journal=Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London|date=12 May 1870|pages=270|url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c026104728;view=1up;seq=310}}) Several subspecies of the grey currawong are fairly distinctive and described on that species page.

The term currawong itself is derived from the call of the pied currawong.{{cite book |title= Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Vol. 7: Boatbill to Starlings |editor= Higgins, Peter Jeffrey |editor2= Peter, John M. |editor3= Cowling SJ |year= 2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location= Melbourne |isbn= 978-0-19-553996-7|page=530|title-link= Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds }} However, the exact origin of term is unclear; the most likely antecedent is the word garrawaŋ from the local Jagera language from the Brisbane region, although the Dharug word gurawaruŋ from the Sydney basin is a possibility.{{cite book|last=Dixon|first=Robert Malcolm Ward|title=Australian Aboriginal Words in English|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1992|page=90|isbn=0-19-553394-1}} Yungang as well as kurrawang and kurrawah are names from the Tharawal people of the Illawarra region.{{cite web|url=http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/cultureheritage/illawarraAboriginalResourceUse.pdf|title=Murni Dhugang Jirrar: Living in the Illawarra|last=Wesson|first=Sue |date=August 2005|work=Department of Environment, Climate Change, and Water|publisher=Department of Environment, Climate Change, and Water, State Government of New South Wales |pages=81|access-date=22 February 2010}}

The three currawong species are sombre-plumaged dark grey or black birds with large bills. They resemble crows and ravens, although are slimmer in build with longer tails, booted tarsi and white pages on their wings and tails.{{cite book |title=Every Australian Bird Illustrated|editor=Wade Peter |year=1977 |page=292|publisher=Rigby|location=Adelaide, South Australia|isbn=0-7270-0009-8}} Their flight is undulating. Male birds have longer bills than females. The reason for this is unknown but suggests differentiation in feeding technique.

The true currawongs are a little larger than the Australian magpie, smaller than the ravens (except possibly the little raven, which is only slightly larger on average), but broadly similar in appearance. They are easily distinguished by their yellow eyes, in contrast to the red eyes of a magpie and white eyes of Australian crows and ravens. Currawongs are also characterised by the hooked tips of their long, sharply pointed beaks.{{cite book |title=Amazing Facts about Australian Birds |first1=Karin |last1=Cox |first2=Steve |last2=Parish |author2-link=Steve Parish |publisher=Steve Parish Publishing |date=2008 |isbn=9781741933017 |oclc=271893200}}

Currawongs are protected in NSW under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974.

Currawongs are dominant birds that can drive off other species, especially when settling around an area used or inhabited by people. They have been known to migrate to towns and cities during the winter.{{cite book |title=A Field Guide to Australian Birds:Non-passerines |last=Slater |first=Peter|year=1974 |publisher=Rigby |location=Adelaide, South Australia |isbn=0-85179-813-6|page=277}} Birds congregate in loose flocks.

The female builds the nest and incubates the young alone, although both parents feed them. The nests are somewhat flimsy for birds their size.

Currawongs can be friendly to humans and may form long lasting relationships. As of September 2021, a currawong had been visiting the same property in the Barrington Tops area of New South Wales for over eighteen years.

File:BTKBCurrawong.jpg

{{Reflist}}

{{Wiktionary|currawong}}

• [http://ibc.lynxeds.com/family/butcherbirds-cracticidae Currawong videos] on the Internet Bird Collection
• [http://hdl.handle.net/10462/comp/1144 Sound and flight of the currawong] – an artwork in a book format created by Wim de Vos and held by the Australian Library of Art, State Library of Queensland
• [http://birdsinbackyards.net/finder/display.cfm?id=127 Birds In Backyards – grey currawong]
• [http://birdsinbackyards.net/finder/display.cfm?id=25 Birds In Backyards – pied currawong]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060813171749/http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/feature/birds-behaving-badly-currawong.cfm Birds In Backyards – Birds Behaving Badly – Pied Currawong (Site on pest status of pied currawong)]
• {{cite web |title=Strepera (Strepera) Lesson, 1830 |publisher=Atlas of Living Australia |url=https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https%3A//biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/4f0282f6-d753-4e53-af72-a08d68c02d78}}

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Category:Endemic birds of Australia

Category:Australian Aboriginal words and phrases

Category:Taxa named by René Lesson