White-browed Woodswallow
Pair (Female Right)
Eastern Pied Butcherbird
S3, Juvenile, anterior
Animals
Plants
Info
| White-browed Woodswallow Pair (Female Right) | | Eastern Pied Butcherbird S3, Juvenile, anterior | | ||
Animals Plants Info |
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Chordates (Chordata) - Birds (Aves) | ||||||||||||
| Order: | Perching Birds (Passeriformes) | |||||||||||||
| Family: | Crow (Artamidae) iNaturalist Observation | |||||||||||||
| Species: | White-browed Woodswallow (Artamus superciliosus)| This Photo: | 🔍Roosting🔎 | Thank you Louise Merigot for confirming the id of this species for us EXTRA - Photo Specific Information: These are very social birds and often flock together (both masked & white-browed). There were 13 woodswallows on this branch before we took the photo. There are 9 in the original photo and 8 in this cropped version. General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere These social birds mate for life (ie a male & female pair stay together for life). The breast colours of males and females vary quite a lot from being nearly grey on some females, and dark chestnut on many males. But sometimes the males are paler with the same colour as darker females. The best way to differentiate the genders is by observing the white brow. Always heavier/thicker on the males. Females also have a more pronounced black eye patch (between the eye & the bill). Often found roosting with their Masked cousins. It seems that there have been cases where they have bred as there is an official "cross" taxon set up on iNaturalist. Notice we only see this species in the summer months. This is because they travel north to the Northern Territory in autumn/winter, and back to South Australia in spring/summer. Woodswallows are very good fliers, catching most of their prey on the wing. We've just added a photo of their "Alula" feathers which allows them to do the necessary acrobatics to catch inverts while flying.
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