Ground cuckooshrike


The ground cuckoo-shrike is an uncommon bird species endemic to Australia, occurring mainly in open woodland and arid grasslands throughout inland Australia, but also occasionally in areas on the east coast.

Taxonomy

Coracina maxima is one of 81 species in the family Campephagidae, 7 of which occur in Australia. The family can be divided into 2 groups, one of which contains 13 of the 81 species, and occur only in Asia. The other group, which includes genus Coracina, occur in Africa, southern and Southeast Asia, Australia and islands in the west Pacific. Occurring in Australia are four species of cuckoo-shrike. The black-faced cuckoo-shrike, a common species in Australia that occurs throughout all of Australia. The white-bellied cuckoo-shrike, uncommon and only occurring in the northern parts of the Northern Territory, as well as most of Queensland and Victoria and the eastern side of NSW. The barred cuckoo-shrike is a rare species and only occurs along the east coast of Queensland, and parts of the NSW coast. These three cuckoo-shrikes all occur in other countries including Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The ground cuckoo-shrike is an uncommon species and is endemic to Australia, occurring in parts of all the main land Australian states and territories.

Description

The ground cuckoo-shrike is a slender, long-legged bird, the largest of the cuckoo-shrikes measuring 33–37 cm in length, and weighing approximately 115 g. The name cuckoo-shrike, was developed not because it is affiliated with either the cuckoo bird or the shrike, but because of the similar features that it has to both these birds. The stout, hooked shrike-like beak and the plumage of the bird which is similar to that of the cuckoo, is the reason for the name cuckoo-shrike.
The adult bird possesses a pale grey head and upper body, with a black mask around pale yellow eyes. Its lower back, rump and underparts are white and finely barred with black, contrasting with the black wings and the forked black tail. This forked tail is a characteristic specific only to the ground cuckoo-shrike. The immature ground cuckoo-shrike is similar in appearance to the adult, but has fine, broken black barrings on the throat and upper parts and dark eyes with a dark eye-line, instead of a black mask with pale yellow eyes. The flight call of this bird is a distinctive ‘pee-ew, pee-ew’ or ‘chill-chill….kee-lik, keelick’. Due to the colouration of the ground cuckoo-shrike, when in flight they can look quite black and white so may be mistaken for an Australian magpie.

Distribution and Habitat

The distribution of the ground cuckoo-bird is widespread across Australia, mainly occurring in Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory and in some parts of Victoria. They occur mostly inland of the Great Dividing Range in Australia's semi-arid regions, but also occur in areas on the east coast. They have been found to occur in areas of open woodland, arid shrub-land and open grasslands that are dominated by dead trees and species such as mulga, cypress-pine and mallee-spinifex. The ground cuckoo-shrike are more likely to occur in these habitats if they are located near watercourses; floodplains, creeks and wetlands. Because of the location of the preferred habitats, ground cuckoo-shrikes are more frequently found in inland areas rather than coastal regions. Various reports have recorded seeing the ground cuckoo-shrike in their observations, showing them to be present in woodland areas located on river channels and floodplains, Mulga tall shrubland and cleared woodland regrowth areas.
Despite their large range throughout Australia, they are an uncommon species, which are thinly distributed and nomadic, which can make it hard to predict their location and where they can be expected to be seen. The current population trend of the ground cuckoo-shrike is said to be decreasing, possibly due to declines in the Murray-Mallee region since the mid 1970s. There are a few places recorded by Dolby and Clarke , in their book that clearly lists and describes places where the ground cuckoo-shrike can be expected to be spotted.

Behaviour

Feeding

The ground cuckoo-shrike, as its name suggests, mainly feeds on the ground, being adapted to this kind of feeding with their long legs and the ability to run quickly along the ground. They spend a lot of their time foraging on bare open ground in small groups for their food which consists of mainly on insects because they are insectivores. Their diet includes adult and larvae insects such as praying mantis, grasshoppers, locust, ants and spiders.

Breeding and nesting

Ground cuckoo-shrikes are generally encountered in small groups of three or more. This is possibly because the young stay in the family group until the next breeding season, sometimes helping to feed the new young. They make their nests on branches or forks of trees 3 to 15 m high, with bark, grass, stems and other material, or use the old nests of magpie-larks or white-winged chough.
The breeding season is from August to November, with the birds forming monogamous pairs and laying between two and five eggs in the nest, which is sometimes shared with other females, as more than one female are known to lay eggs in the same nest during the same breeding season. The eggs are a glossy olive colour with brown/red-brown markings on them.

Threats and Conservation status

Though the population of the ground cuckoo-shrike is decreasing, its conservation status is classed as least concern. In 2013, it was listed as vulnerable in Victoria under the Advisory List of Threatened Vertebrate Fauna in Victoria 2013.
A possible threat to the ground cuckoo-shrike is the increase in woody vegetation density. This would benefit most woodland bird species, but in the case of the ground cuckoo-shrike which dwells in open woodland habitats, it could have a detrimental effect on its population.