Grey Butcherbird - Cracticus torquatus - Artamidae

 

[Device used: Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ-70; MAY/2020; Pakenham, Victoria, Australia]

#RaselOgraphy

Grey Butcherbirds, much like Ravens, are meat-loving birds that aren't afraid to come near to our homes and gardens. In fact, our backyards are often a treasure trove for these buddies that eat insects, beetles, caterpillars, mice, lizards, skinks and other small buddies.

The Grey Butcherbird, Cracticus torquatus, is found across Australia, from mid-eastern Queensland, through southern Australia, including Tasmania, to northern Western Australia. There is an isolated population in the Kimberley and the northernmost parts of the Northern Territory.

Buddies like the Grey Butcherbird are not only garden visitors but are also attracted to our streets, where they can scavenge on road kill. This may not sound too appealing, but it's actually a useful job the Grey Butcherbird performs for us. It helps keep our environment clean and healthy by recycling nutrients back into the soil.

Butcherbirds get their name from their gruesome way of feeding. The Grey Butcherbird'۪s mean-looking hooked beak gives you a clue. When they catch prey, they hang it off a branch or tree fork, and hack the meat away, just like a butcher. It also hangs uneaten food in the fork of a branch or impaled on a twig (their 'larder') and comes back to eat the leftovers later.

Grey Butcherbirds love to eat meat such as lizards, mice, beetles, insects, chicks and small birds, and other small buddies. When they spy their prey, they pounce quickly on it, or can even catch prey in mid-air.

Grey Butcherbirds will also occasionally eat fruit and seeds, which you may see them hunting for in your garden.

Spring is a good time to see a Grey Butcherbird with its chicks. These birds breed from July to January each year. The females lay three to five eggs in a nest up to 10 metres high off the ground. The female will incubate her eggs for about 25 days, and then both parents feed the chicks.

In some Grey Butcherbird families, the chicks will stay around for a year after they have fledged to help their parents raise the next set of chicks.

Grey Butcherbirds have a wide variety of rich, melodious calls. [1]

The adult Grey Butcherbird has a black crown and face and a grey back, with a thin white collar. The wings are grey, with large areas of white and the underparts are white. The grey and black bill is large, with a small hook at the tip of the upper bill. The eye is dark brown and the legs and feet are dark grey. Both sexes are similar in plumage, but the females are slightly smaller than the males. Young Grey Butcherbirds resemble adults, but have black areas replaced with olive-brown and a buff wash on the white areas. The bill is completely dark grey and often lacks an obvious hook. They are sometimes mistaken for small kingfishers. 

With its lovely, lilting song, the Grey Butcherbird may not seem to be a particularly intimidating species. However, with its strong, hooked beak and its fierce stare, the Grey Butcherbird is not a bird to be messed with. When a nest or newly fledged chick is around, if you venture too close, a butcherbird will swoop by flying straight at your face, sometimes striking with enough force to draw blood, and each swoop is accompanied by a loud, maniacal cackle. [2]