Habitat
Mainly dry eucalypt forests and woodlands and with understorey varying from sparse to dense. Often in farmland and urban areas where trees are present.
Black-faced Cuckooshrike (Coracina novaehollandiae) [XC845491]
by id from Banks Street Reserve (near Alderley), Brisbane City, Queensland, Australia (song)
Black-faced Cuckooshrike (Coracina novaehollandiae) [XC680799]
by Marc Anderson from Fawkner, Darebin City, Victoria, Australia (uncertain)
Nest
A small neat saucer, composed of dry twigs and bark bound with cobweb, on a horizontal fork of a tree, usually from 10 - 20 meters above the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
2 or 3; green to olive, almost plain, or softly blotched with brown and grey; oblong-oval; about 34 x 24 mm. Incubation: about 21 - 24 days; by both sexes.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in about 25 days. Fed by both parents.
Australian populations of nominate subspecies and melanops exhibit continent-wide cline of increasing body size north to south. Birds from (northern Australia) described as subspecies didimus, but considered indistinguishable from melanops.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
subpallida Mathews, 1912 - Breeds west-central Australia (Pilbara). Non-breeding possibly Lesser Sundas and Kai Is.
melanops (Latham, 1801) - Breeds south-west, south, eastern and northern Australia and main offshore islands, also locally south-eastern New Guinea (Port Moresby region). Non-breeding Moluccas, Lesser Sundas, and eastern New Guinea east to western Solomons.
novaehollandiae (Gmelin, 1789) - Breeds Tasmania and islands in Bass Strait (King I, Furneaux Group). Non-breeding south-eastern Australia.
Similar Species
In some plumages with White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike (Coracina papuensis) of south-eastern and eastern Australia. In brief views with Pallid Cuckoo (Heteroscenes pallidus) and Oriental Cuckoo (Cuculus optatus) which have a similar undulating flight and with Masked Woodswallow (Artamus personatus) which is much smaller and has a very different flight pattern.
Compare Images
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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