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Pied Butcherbird

Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the virtuoso songster the pied butcherbird of Australia.

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the virtuoso songster the pied butcherbird of Australia. Australian parks, gardens resonate to the flute like calls of a medium sized black and white bird with stout blue-grey bills, and a black hood. They earned their name 'butcherbird' from their habit of storing prey by impaling it onto thorns or in a tree crevice before feeding on it with their hooked bill. They can sing for up to twenty minutes at a time, appearing to improvise as they perform a mellifluous, but unpredictable performance which they deliver as a solo or a duet with another butcherbird. Australian composer David Lumsdaine, described its call as..... "a virtuoso of composition and improvisation".

Producer : Andrew Dawes

Available now

1 minute

Last on

Thu 1 Feb 2024 05:58

Pied Butcherbird (Cracticus nigrogularis)

Webpage image courtesy of William Osborne / naturepl.com.

© William Osborne / naturepl.com.

Broadcasts

  • Mon 13 Oct 2014 05:58
  • Fri 9 Oct 2015 05:58
  • Fri 16 Dec 2016 05:58
  • Tue 30 Jul 2019 05:58
  • Sun 28 Feb 2021 08:58
  • Thu 25 May 2023 05:58
  • Thu 1 Feb 2024 05:58

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