Adults: General plumage totally black, with purple and green gloss. Underdown dusky grey. Throat feathers are long, round-tipped hackles that are flared conspicuously in a shaggy bag as the bird calls. Throat feathers ae flanked by areas of bare skin running down either side of chin from the base of the underbill. Eye, white, with inner blue ring. Bill, black and large. Feet, dusky black.
Immatures: Like adults but breast and belly sooty black. Underdown paler greyish. Eye, brown.
Other Names (World)
Australian Raven, Crow, White-eyed Crow, Southern Crow, Raven, Southern Raven, Kelly
Almost throughout Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, extending into eastern Northern Territory and Western Australia. Absent from Tasmania.
Rarity Status
Currently this species is not classified as a rarity in this country OR information has not been updated.
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).
Food
Omnivorous. Mainly insects, grasshoppers and army worms, including carrion.
Voice
Loud, wailing 'aah-aah-aah-aaaaaahh', drawn out, descending and fading, given in territorial advertisement, sometimes in flight but usually on a perch, the bird standing horizontal, head forward and hackles flared. Also softer, shorter warbled caws in contact and conversation, but usually tenor in tone.
Nest
A large rather flat structure of sticks, lined with scraps of bark, grass and wool felted together into a thick pad. Usually above 13 m in a large tree.
Eggs (Guide)
4 or 5; green, heavily blotched and spotted with dark olive-brown; oblong-oval; about 45 x 30 mm. Incubation: 20 days; by female.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in about 43 days.
Subspecies
The two subspecies intergrade in a broad zone from lower - western Lake Eyre Basin to the Gawler Ranges and Eyre Peninsula, SA.
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
coronoides Vigors & Horsfield, 1827 - Most of eastern half of Australia from central-southern Gulf of Carpentaria and the foot of of Cape York Peninsula, NT - Qld, south to southern Victoria and southern SA, extending east to the Great Divide in Qld - northern New South Wales and east to eastern and south-eastern coast between Manning River, New South Wales and Port Phillip Bay, Vic, and extending inland to the eastern centralian ranges of NT, eastern Simpson Desert and Flinders Ranges, SA. Absent from the Mt Lofty Ranges region.
perplexus Mathews, 1912 - From head of Great Australia Bight, SA across southern WA to south-western Australia and north to mulga - eucalypt boundary line and Shark Bay, WA.
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
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