Pied Currawong (Strepera graculina) [XC857989]
by Niels Krabbe from Pennyroyal Station Road, Pennyroyal, Victoria, Australia (call)
Pied Currawong (Strepera graculina) [XC586986]
by Marc Anderson from Royal Botanic Garden Sydney (near Sydney), Council of the City of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (call)
Nest
Large, open, composed of twigs and sticks, lined with rootlets, in the outer forked branches of a tall tree.
Eggs (Guide)
Usually 3; light brown with blotches and freckles of darker brown; oval; about 42 x 30 mm. Incubation: about 21 days; by female.
Young
Fledge in about 30 days.
Subspecies
Forms a superspecies with Black Currawong (Strepera fuliginosa) and sometimes considered conspecific.
Subspecies nebulosa intergrades with nominate in north (from Mudgee south to Eden, in south-eastern New South Wales) and with ashbyi in south-west (western Victoria), possibly completely overlapping latter subspecies (especially in Grampian Range), and continued existence of "pure" ashbyi individuals uncertain.
The following 6 subspecies are recognised:
graculina (White, 1790) - Eastern Queensland (from Clarke Range, just south of Bowen) Southern, inland to western slopes of Great Dividing Range, to Blue Mts and south-eastern New South Wales.
magnirostris White, HL, 1923 - Eastern Cape York Peninsula south to about Laura (northern Queensland), in north-eastern Australia.
robinsoni Mathews, 1912 - Coastal ranges of northern Queensland on eastern slopes of Great Dividing Range (from Cooktown south to Ingham).
nebulosa Schodde & Mason, IJ, 1999 - South-eastern New South Wales tablelands and eastern Victoria.
ashbyi Mathews, 1913 - Southern half of western Victoria (especially in Grampian Range) west of line between Ballarat and Cape Otway.
crissalis Sharpe, 1877 - Lord Howe I and offshore islands (including Admiralty Group).
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