Dusky Woodswallow
Juvenile, With a Snack
Dusky Woodswallow
Juvenile, head
| Dusky Woodswallow Juvenile, With a Snack | | Dusky Woodswallow Juvenile, head | | ||
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Chordates (Chordata) - Birds (Aves) | |||
| Order: | Perching Birds (Passeriformes) | ||||
| Family: | Crow (Artamidae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
| Species: | Dusky Woodswallow (Artamus cyanopterus) | ||||
| This Photo: | Juvenile, back | ||||
Thank you Antoni Camozzato for confirming the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA), the Flinders Ranges and elsewhere The blue beak contrasts starkly with the drab-coloured body. "Dusky" is a very appropriate name, it's almost a sooty-grey coloured bird. There does seem to be some colour variation between the sooty-grey & chocolate brown. We suspected the chocolate brown birds were immature/sub-adult; but Lauren Butler showed us a photo of a chocolate brown pair with their offspring. As such, it's just a colour variation. Fledglings are chocolate brown with "pin stripes". As the fledglings age, the "pin stripes" disappear. They are different to the Little Woodswallow (Artamus minor) as they have a white stripe on their wings' leading edge which is visible when sitting. They are also larger, but this would be nearly impossible to determine unless they were standing next to each other or you were already familiar with the Little Woodswallow. | |||||
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