Male: Face and head, black. Hind-neck, back and rump, white or white broad black back band in northern and eastern Australia north of mid-Victoria. Scapulars, black. Wings, black. Upper- and under wing-coverts, white. Tail, white with broad to narrow black tip. Underparts uniformly black. Eye, red-brown. Bill, grey-white, tip black. Feet, black.
Female: As male of respective subspecies but white on back and on hind-neck flecked grey or, in south-western Australia, feathers of back centered black with white edges. Bill, shorter.
Immatures: Dusky parts of adult plumage scalloped buff for first year, greyer in second. White parts flecked grey. Buff-white eye-brow after first moult.
Other Scientific Names
Cracticus tibicen [Christidis and Boles (2008)]
Other Names (World)
Australian Magpie, Australasian Magpie, Piping Crow-shrike, Black-backed Magpie (longirostris, terraereginae, eylandtensis, tibicen), New Guinea Magpie (papuanus), Western Magpie, Varied Crow-shrike (dorsalis), White-backed Magpie (tyrannicus, telonocua, hypoleucus), White-backed Crow-shrike (tyrannicus, telonocua, hypoleucus), Long-billed Magpie, Flute Bird, Piping Crow-shrike
Voice
Call: Loud shout and descending caw in alarm or warning. Shrieking yodel in agression. Young beg with whining cawing. Song: Organ-like fluted carolling, often in group duets. Sub-song by individual birds includes some mimicry.
Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) [XC157485]
by Ronald Fredericks from Noosa Heads, Queensland, Australia (song)
Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) [XC729284]
by Eddy Smith from Littlehampton, District Council of Mount Barker, South Australia, Australia (duet, song)
Nest
Deep, bowl-shaped, basket of sticks and twigs, lined with wool, hair and grass, placed in the fork of a tree, usually from 8 - 20 meters above the ground. Where trees are scarce or absent the nest may be placed in a hedgerow, on a stonewall, on telegraph poles or even on the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
1 - 6, usually 3 - 5; blue or green, blotched and streaked with red-browns; oval; about 38 x 27 mm. Incubation: 20 days; by female.
Young
Fledge in about 4 weeks.
Subspecies
Subspecies fall into three groups, the "black-backed group" (longirostris, terraereginae, eylandtensis and nominate) of north-west, northern and eastern Australia, the "white-backed group" (tyrannicus, telonocua and hypoleucus) of south-eastern Australia and Tasmania, and the "western or varied group" (dorsalis) of south-western Australia, the last possibly including papuanus of New Guinea. Groups were formerly treated as representing three distinct species, but little congruence found between morphological variation and genetic variation.
Subspecies intergrade extensively: eylandtensis intergrades with terraereginae in central and southern Northern Territory and north-western Queensland, and latter subspecies intergrades with all others (tibicen, tyrannicus, telonocua) where ranges meet. In south-central Australia confusing intergradation involving telonocua, terraereginae, tyrannicus and eylandtensis; and dorsalis intergrades with longirostris over broad region of southern Western Australia from Shark Bay east to south-western edge of Great Victoria Desert.
Proposed subspecies finki (described from Horseshoe Bend, on Finke R, in Northern Territory) refers to an intergrading population between eylandtensis and presumably terraereginae; leuconotus (from South Australia) likewise relates to an intergrade. With so much complex intergradation and often only differences in size between subspecies, recognition of so many races perhaps inappropriate. Further study is required.
About six subspecies, probably five in Australia, three distinct, differing mainly in patterning of back - black or white - but all hybridizing and intergrading where they meet. dorsalis (Western Magpie) - of south-western Australia, hypoleuca (White-backed Magpie) - of the south-eastern States, tibicen (Black-backed Magpie) - which occurs over most of New South Wales, Queensland, and northern Australia.
The following 9 subspecies are recognised:
papuana Bangs and Peters, 1926 - Southern New Guinea (southern Trans-Fly region from Princess Marianne Strait east to Oriomo R).
eylandtensis White, HL, 1922 - Northern western Australia (Kimberley region) east through northern Territory (including Groote Eylandt) to north-western Queensland.
longirostris Milligan, 1903 - Western Australia from Dampier Land south at least to Pilbara region (inland extent uncertain).
dorsalis Campbell, AJ, 1895 - South-western western Australia (east almost to Eucla, south of Great Victoria Desert).
telonocua Schodde & Mason, IJ, 1999 - Southern northern Territory and South Australia.
terraereginae Mathews, 1912 - Most of Queensland (except Gulf region and extreme south-east) and New South Wales west of Great Dividing Range (including most of Murray-Darling basin) south to eastern South Australia (southern, east of L Eyre, to Murray R) and northern Victoria.
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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