Grey Shrike-thrush
Male Adult Back
Ellura
Grey Shrike-thrush
Male Adult Grey Lores
 
                      
Grey Shrike-thrush (Colluricincla harmonica ssp harmonica)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Chordates (Chordata) - Birds (Aves)
Order: Perching Birds (Passeriformes)
Family: Whistler (Pachycephalidae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Grey Shrike-thrush (Colluricincla harmonica ssp harmonica)
This Photo:     🔍Male Adult White Lores🔎

Thank you Tony and Jenny Dominelli & David Mules for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA), the Adelaide Hills, the Flinders Ranges and elsewhere
What a song. Pretty, but plain-coloured (grey shades)
Juveniles: rufous eye + breast markings.
Male Adults have a white patch between the eyes and the beak (ie the lores). But this patch isn't easy to see, depending on lighting & angle. So seeing a white lores means you have a male, while not seeing a white lores doesn't guarantee you have a female.
The female has a white eye ring.
Both genders sing, not just the male.
We've just added photo's of eggs & chicks. These were taken over 3 years observing the same nest in our carport. Notice the eggs look different, even though they are the same species (possibly/likely the same parents/mother). Also notice there were 3 eggs/chicks each time. We didn't get a full sequence in one year as we were trying not to disturb them (ie photographing caused the parent to fly away). Everytime we came home from work/shops, etc, the parent would leave. Being a cold environment, we were concerned about the viability of the eggs & chicks with the parents leaving so often. It wasn't an ideal place for the nest, but gave us the opportunity to observe & record them. We think
they fledged at about 14 days old or so, but can't be sure.

Copyright © 2013-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 23-Apr-2013
This species is classed as LC (Least Concern) in the Murray Mallee, SA, by DENR (Regional Species Status Assessments, July 2010)