The black currawong is endemic to Tasmania and the nearby islands within the Bass Strait. It is a large crow-like bird, around 50 cm long on average, with yellow irises, a heavy bill, and black plumage with white wing patches. Three subspecies are recognised, one of which, Strepera fuliginosa colei of King Island, is vulnerable to extinction.
About Black currawong in brief
The black currawong is endemic to Tasmania and the nearby islands within the Bass Strait. It is a large crow-like bird, around 50 cm long on average, with yellow irises, a heavy bill, and black plumage with white wing patches. Three subspecies are recognised, one of which, Strepera fuliginosa colei of King Island, is vulnerable to extinction. The species is often confused with the local dark-plumaged subspecies of the grey currawongs, known as the clinkingCurrawong or hill magpie. The nominate form of the black Currawong has identical plumage to the nominate form, but is slightly smaller with shorter wings and tails. The two island subspecies have identical plumages to the nominee subspecies, but are slightly smaller and have a shorter tail than parvior. The male and female are similar in appearance, with the male being heavier than the female. The black cur Crawong is one of three species in the genus Strepera, and is closely related to the butcherbirds and Australian magpie within the family Artamidae. It roosts and breeds in trees and is rare below altitudes of 200 m. It eats a variety of berries, invertebrates, and small vertebrates. It was first described by ornithologist John Gould in 1836 as Cracticus fuliginosus, and in 1837 as Coronica fulig inosa.
The specific epithet is the Late Latin adjective fuliginous, which means’sooty’ or ‘black’ It is also known locally as the black jay, which is a local name applied to the species within Tasmania. A 2013 genetic analysis by Anna Kearns and colleagues gave some indication that the black curRAWong lineage diverged from a common ancestor of thegrey and pied curRAWongs. Although crow- like in appearance and habits, currawONGs are only distantly related to true crows, and are instead closelyrelated to the Australian magpies and butcherbirds. The affinities of all three genera were recognised early on and they were placed in the family Cracticidae in 1914 by ornathologist John Albert Leach after he had studied their musculature. The blackCurrawongs are one of the three species of currawongo in the group StreperA. The other two species are the pied and grey Currawongs and the grey Cur Crawongs. The grey cur Crawongs are the most common currawonga in Tasmania. The Black Currawonga is the only species in Australia that is not endemic to the island of Tasmania.
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This page is based on the article Black currawong published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 07, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
