The Pied butcherbird (Cracticus nigrogularis) is a songbird native to Australia. It is considered the most accomplished songbird in Australia. Its song described as a "magic flute" by one writer, richer and clearer than the Australian magpie. The song melodies of these birds vary across the continent and no single song is sung by the whole population.
The Pied butcherbird is stockily built with short legs and a relatively large head. Its wings are fairly long, extending to half-way along the tail when folded. Its plumage is almost wholly black and white, with very little difference between the sexes. It has a black head, nape, and throat, giving it the appearance of a black hood, which is bounded by a white neck collar, which is around 3.2 cm (1 in) wide. The black hood is slightly glossy in bright light, can fade a little with age, and is slightly duller and more brownish in the adult female. The neck collar in the female is slightly narrower at around 2.5 cm (1 in) and is grey-white rather than white. Several stiff black bristles up to 1.5 cm (1 in) long arise from the lower lores. The upper mantle and a few of the front scapulars are white, contrasting sharply with the black lower mantle and the rest of the scapulars. The rump is pale grey, and the upper tail coverts are white. The tail is rather long, with a rounded or wedge-shaped tip. It has twelve rectrices, which are black in color. The tail tip and outer wing feathers are white. The underparts are white. The eyes are a dark brown, the legs grey and the bill a pale bluish grey tipped with black, with a prominent hook at the end. The juvenile has dark brown instead of black plumage, lacks the pale collar, and has cream to buff lores, chin, and upper throat, becoming more brown on the lower throat and breast. Its underparts are off-white to cream. The bill is dark brown. In its first year, the young bird molts into its first immature plumage, which resembles that of the juvenile but has a more extensive dark brown throat. Its bill is blue-grey with a dark brown or blackish tip.
Pied butcherbirds are found across much of Australia, except the far south of the mainland, and Tasmania. They rarely occur in the Sydney Basin and are absent from the Illawarra, Southern Tablelands, and south coast of New South Wales. In Victoria, they are found along the Murray Valley and west of Chiltern. Pied butcherbirds are generally sedentary across most of their range, with minimal seasonal movements. They prefer to live in open sclerophyll forests, eucalypt and acacia woodlands, and scrublands, with sparse or no understory, or low cover with shrubs. In arid areas and northern Australia, they prefer woodland alongside rivers and billabongs. Pied butcherbirds are also common in suburban and urban environments.
Pied butcherbirds live in pairs or family groups and hold their territories throughout the year. They are active during the day. They often perch on a fencepost, stump, or branch while foraging for prey. They generally pounce on victims on the ground and eat them there. At times, they may hop or run along hunting ground-based food and occasionally seize flying insects. Pied butcherbirds usually forage alone, or occasionally in pairs. They have also been observed hunting collaboratively with the Australian hobby, either picking off Common starlings or Rufous-throated honeyeaters disturbed by the larger hobby, or flushing out small birds from bushes, which the larger bird then hunts. They sometimes store food items by impaling them on a stick or barbed wire or shoving them in a nook or crevice. Pied butcherbirds are vocal and often sing at dawn, and rarely late in the day. They sometimes may also sing on moonlit nights. Three types of song have been described: the day song, sung by birds alone or in pairs as a chorus or an antiphonal duet. The whisper song is sung more commonly in wet or windy weather, the singer sitting in a tree warbling soft and complex harmonies for up to 45 minutes, often mimicking many other bird species as well as dogs barking, lambs bleating, or even people whistling. In the breeding season, Pied butcherbirds sing the breeding song at night until dawn, when they switch to the day song. This song is longer and more complex than the day song. In response to threats, Pied butcherbirds may chatter or make a harmonic alarm call composed of short, loud descending notes.
Pied butcherbirds are carnivores and eat various insects including beetles, bugs, ants, caterpillars, and cockroaches, as well as spiders and worms. They also prey on vertebrates up to the size of such animals as frogs, skinks, mice, and small birds. Some individuals look for scraps around houses and picnic sites. Pied butcherbirds also eat fruit, such as those of sandpaper figs, native cherry, grapes, and nectar of the Darwin woollybutt.
Pied butcherbirds are thought to be monogamous and form pairs, though their breeding habits have not been much studied. It is also thought that they are cooperative breeders, with some mated pairs being assisted by up to several other helper birds. These individuals help feed the young and defend the nest. Mated pairs or small groups defend their nesting territory from intruders. They may attack animals (and people) that venture too close to the nest, with one bird coming front-on while the other may approach from behind. Pied butcherbirds can breed from winter to summer; eggs are usually laid anywhere from July to December, but mostly from September to November, and young can be present in the nest from August to February. The nest is constructed of dry sticks with finer material such as dried grass, bark, and leaves forming a cup-shaped interior. It is located in the fork of a tree, often among foliage and inconspicuous. The clutch consists of 2-5 oval eggs blotched with brown over a base color of various shades of pale greyish- or brownish-green. Incubation takes 19-21 days. The chicks are altricial; they hatch naked or sparsely covered in down and blind. They spend anywhere from 25 to 33 days in the nest before fledging, though may leave the nest early if disturbed. They are fed by parents and helper birds.
There are no major threats to this species at present.
The IUCN Red List and other sources don’t provide the number of the Pied butcherbird total population size. Currently, this species is classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List.
