Butcherbirds are magpie-like

European Magpie

The European Magpie, Eurasian Magpie, or Common Magpie, , is a resident breeding bird throughout Europe, much of Asia and northwest Africa. It is one of several birds in the crow family named as magpies, and belongs to the Holarctic radiation of "monochrome" magpies...

 bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

s in the genus Cracticus. They are native to Australasia

Australasia

Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...

. Their closest relatives are the three species of currawong

Currawong

Currawongs are three species of medium-sized passerine birds belonging to the genus Strepera in the family Artamidae native to Australasia. These are the Grey Currawong , Pied Currawong , and Black Currawong . The common name comes from the call of the familiar Pied Currawong of eastern Australia...

. Together they form the subfamily Cracticinae in the family Artamidae

Artamidae

The family Artamidae gathers together 20 species of mostly crow-like birds native to Australasia and nearby areas.There are two subfamilies: Artaminae, the woodswallows, are sombre-coloured, soft-plumaged birds that have a brush-tipped tongue but seldom use it for gathering nectar. Instead, they...

 which also contains the woodswallow

Woodswallow

Woodswallows are soft-plumaged, somber-coloured passerine birds. There is a single genus, Artamus, The woodswallows are either treated as a subfamily, Artaminae in an expanded family Artamidae, which includes the butcherbirds and Australian Magpie, or as the only genus in that family...

s.

Butcherbirds are mid-sized, most growing up to 35 cm in length, although the Australian Magpie

Australian Magpie

The Australian Magpie is a medium-sized black and white passerine bird native to Australia and southern New Guinea. A member of the Artamidae, it is closely related to the butcherbirds...

 is larger, at a maximum 43 cm. Their colour ranges from black-and-white to mostly black with added grey plumage, depending on the species. They have a large, straight bill with a distinctive hook at the end which is used to skewer prey. They have high-pitched complex songs.

Butcherbirds are insect eaters

Insectivore

An insectivore is a type of carnivore with a diet that consists chiefly of insects and similar small creatures. An alternate term is entomophage, which also refers to the human practice of eating insects....

 for the most part, but will also feed on small lizards and other vertebrates. They get their name from their habit of impaling captured prey on a thorn, tree fork, or crevice. This "larder" is used to support the victim while it is being eaten, to store prey for later consumption, or to attract mates.

Butcherbirds are the ecological counterparts of the shrike

Shrike

Shrikes are passerine birds of the family Laniidae. The family is composed of thirty-one species in three genera. The family name, and that of the largest genus, Lanius, is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes were also known as "butcher birds" because of their feeding habits...

s, which are unrelated, but share the "larder" habit; shrikes are also sometimes called "butcherbirds".

Female butcherbirds lay one or two eggs in a clutch. The nest is made from twigs, high up in a fork of a tree. The young will remain with their mother until almost fully grown. They tend to trail behind their mother and "squeak" incessantly while she catches food for them.

Woodland

Woodland

Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...

s are the butcherbird's natural habitat but, like many similar species, they have adapted well to urbanisation

Urbanization

Urbanization, urbanisation or urban drift is the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change. The United Nations projected that half of the world's population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008....

 and can be found in leafy suburbs throughout Australia. They are opportunistic, showing little fear and readily taking food offerings to the point of becoming semi-tame

Domestication

Domestication or taming is the process whereby a population of animals or plants, through a process of selection, becomes accustomed to human provision and control. In the Convention on Biological Diversity a domesticated species is defined as a 'species in which the evolutionary process has been...

.

Species

• Black Butcherbird
  Black Butcherbird
  The Black Butcherbird is a species of bird in the Cracticidae family.It is found in Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea....
  
  , Cracticus quoyi
• Grey Butcherbird
  Grey Butcherbird
  The Grey Butcherbird is a widely distributed species endemic to Australia. The Grey Butcherbird occurs in a range of different habitats including arid, semi-arid and temperate zones. It has a characteristic "rollicking" birdsong...
  
  , Cracticus torquatus
  • Silver-backed Butcherbird
    Silver-backed Butcherbird
    The Silver-backed Butcherbird is a small, shrike-like bird. It is almost identical to the Grey Butcherbird of which it considered by some authorities to be a subspecies, C...
    
     Cracticus argenteus (alternately a subspecies of C. torquatus)
• Hooded Butcherbird
  Hooded Butcherbird
  The Hooded Butcherbird is a species of passerine bird in the Cracticidae family. It is found in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.-Taxonomy:...
  
  , Cracticus cassicus
• Tagula Butcherbird
  Tagula Butcherbird
  The Tagula Butcherbird is a species of bird in the Cracticidae family.It is endemic to Papua New Guinea.-References:* BirdLife International 2004. . Downloaded on 25 July 2007....
  
  , Cracticus louisiadensis
• Black-backed Butcherbird
  Black-backed Butcherbird
  The Black-backed Butcherbird is a species of bird in the Cracticidae family.It is found in Papua New Guinea Indonesia, and northern Queensland in Australia.-References:...
  
  , Cracticus mentalis
• Pied Butcherbird
  Pied Butcherbird
  The Pied Butcherbird is a medium-sized songbird native to Australia. It grows about 35 centimetres long and the colour of juvenile birds, which are accompanied by their parents, is brown and white as seen in the picture. As they mature their brown feathers are replaced by black feathers...
  
  , Cracticus nigrogularis
• Australian Magpie
  Australian Magpie
  The Australian Magpie is a medium-sized black and white passerine bird native to Australia and southern New Guinea. A member of the Artamidae, it is closely related to the butcherbirds...
  
  Cracticus tibicen

External links

• Butcherbird videos on the Internet Bird Collection