Grey Butcherbird

GREY BUTCHERBIRD Cracticus torquatus

Today is the first day of Spring in the Southern Hemisphere. It was a very cold, frosty morning but it warmed up as the day went on.It was quite overcast with patches of sun.

This butcherbird was busy hunting. He would sit on the low branches of a tree with his head cocked to one side watching the ground. I knew an old man who once describing a friend with a sore neck, said 'He's like a magpie looking down a bottle'. I know exactly what he meant.





 That is not surprising, both the magpie and the butcher bird are members of the same subfamily  Cracticinae, in the family Artamidae. The name is from the Greek, kraktikós, meaning noisy.

Well, this butcherbird sat with his head cocked to the side, looking through one eye at the ground. He'd then pounce on whatever he saw, swoop back to his perch and eat his lunch. 

 I often hear the beautiful song of the butcherbirds, but seldom seem them. They sing like magpies who have been to singing school. Michael Morcombe's Field Guide To Australian Birds describes the song in a beautifully poetic piece of prose."Songs include slow, deep, mellow notes, 'quorrock-quokoo' and a deep, bubbly to loud, clear 'kworrok-a-chowk, chowk,chowk,chowk' " The desciption is almost  as lovely as the song.

As beautiful as the voice is, the Cracticus is a predator.  Whilst they feed mainly on insects they will also take other prey, small lizards and young nestlings. The strong hooked beak is quite visible in some of the photographs.