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 LC    Black Butcherbird* Id (Atlas): 701
    Melloria quoyi

Description (10)
Image of Black Butcherbird
 

Other Names (World)
Black Butcherbird, Brown Butcherbird, Quoy Butcherbird, Rufous Crow-shrke, Black Crow-shrike, Currawong

Family
Artamidae (Woodswallows And Butcherbirds)

Size
42 - 44 cm

First Described (Guide)
(Lesson, 1827)

Derivation
Crac'-tic'-us - Gk, cracticos, loud-voiced: quoyi - L., collared

Abundance (Guide)
MC

Fairly common, sedentary.

Habitat
Rainforests, mangroves and adjacent scrubs.

Range (Guide)
Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea.

Image of Range of Black Butcherbird
Northern and eastern Australia, west to Port Keats, NT and south to about Rockhampton, Qld.
 
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).

Status LC
Secure.

For more information see BirdLife International Species Factsheet.

Habits
Usually singly or in pairs.

Food
Crustaceans, insects, reptiles, and small birds and their eggs.

Voice
A deep, clonking, 'kwok' or 'kwow'. A rich, deep, organ-like, 'choi', chopped short. Rollicking, deep, yodels.



Xeno-Canto Sound Files (more (96)...)

 
Black Butcherbird (Melloria quoyi) [XC759903]
     by from Portland House (near Lockhart), Cook Shire, Queensland, Australia (song, wind)

 
Black Butcherbird (Melloria) [XC141063]
     by Phil Gregory from Tangguh, West Papua, Indonesia (song)

Breeding Season (Guide)
October - January.

J F M A M J J A S O N D
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   


Nest
Large, open, cup-shaped, composed of sticks and twigs, in an upright fork of a tree, usually 7 or 8 meters above the ground.

Eggs (Guide)
2 or 3, sometimes 4; variably dull, green-grey sparingly spotted and lightly blotched with red-brown, lavender and brown-black, mostly towards the lareger end; oval; about 35 x 25 mm. Incubation: by both sexes.

Young
Probably altricial, nidicolous. Fed by both parents.

Subspecies
Subspecies jardini intergrades with rufescens in region of Endeavour R (in north-eastern Queensland).

The following 5 subspecies are recognised:

  • quoyi (Lesson, 1827)   -  West Papuan Islands (Waigeo, Salawati and Misool), Yapen (in Geelvink Bay) and mainland New Guinea (except Trans-Fly).
  • alecto (Schodde & Mason, IJ, 1999)   -  South-central New Guinea (Trans-Fly region from Princess Marianne Strait east to Daru I), Aru Is, and islands in northern Torres Strait (Boigu and Saibai).
  • spaldingi (Masters, 1878)   -  Northern western Australia (Cambridge Gulf) east along coast, including Tiwi Islands (Bathurst I and Melville I), to coastal Arnhem Land (to Blue Mud Bay, in Gulf of Carpentaria).
  • jardini (Mathews, 1912)   -  Coastal Cape York Peninsula south to Mitchell R in the west and to Cooktown in the east.
  • rufescens (De Vis, 1883)   -  North-eastern coastal Queensland from Cooktown area soth to northern Broad Sound (south of Mackay), with gap at Burdekin R.



References
See References.

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


Files:
JPG files for Black Butcherbird (Melloria quoyi) - 10 filesMP3 files for Black Butcherbird (Melloria quoyi) - 1 files


More Information

BirdLife International

For more information about the Black Butcherbird see... Show Articles BirdLife International Species Factsheet.


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