Pied Currawong

The Pied Currawong is a large, robust, mostly black bird with a striking yellow eye, a stout black bill, and bold white patches in the wings, undertail coverts, and tail tip that flash conspicuously in flight. Its overall build is heavier and more crow-like than a magpie, with a slightly hooked bill tip suited to its varied, partly predatory diet.

Outside the breeding season, currawongs often gather in large, sometimes very vocal flocks, particularly in autumn and winter as birds move from higher forested breeding areas down into lowland towns and gardens.

Key field marks

• Mostly black plumage with a yellow eye
• White patches in the wings, tail tip, and undertail coverts, obvious in flight
• Heavy, slightly hooked black bill
• Loud, ringing call giving the species its common name

Similar species

• Grey Currawong: greyer overall plumage rather than solid black, though white wing/tail markings are similar.
• Australian Raven: entirely black with no white markings and a pale (not yellow) eye.
• Australian Magpie: more extensive white on the body, straighter bill, and reddish rather than yellow eye.

Habitat

Pied Currawongs occupy a range of wooded habitats including eucalypt forest, rainforest edges, farmland with remnant trees, and urban parks and gardens, often moving seasonally between habitat types.

Range

The species is found along the east coast and ranges of Australia, from far north Queensland through New South Wales into eastern Victoria.

Migration

Many populations show altitudinal migration, breeding in higher forested country and moving down to lowland areas, including towns and cities, in autumn and winter, often forming large flocks during this period.

Behavior

Pied Currawongs are bold, adaptable birds, foraging both in trees and on the ground, and are known to raid the nests of smaller birds for eggs and nestlings, a behavior that has drawn some conservation concern in fragmented urban and suburban habitats where their numbers are boosted by human food sources.

Voice

The call is a loud, ringing, far-carrying "curra-wong" or "currawong," from which the bird takes its common name, along with a range of other harsh and metallic notes.

Feeding

Diet is broadly omnivorous, including insects and other invertebrates, native and introduced fruits, small vertebrates, and the eggs and nestlings of other birds.

Nesting and breeding

Nests are large stick platforms built high in trees. Clutches typically contain two to four pale eggs with darker blotches, incubated mainly by the female, with the male helping provision the family.