Strewth! Pica pica, currawong or butcherbird?

Available for over a year

Australian magpies have a tricky evolutionary back story, but its song is beloved Down Under. Their black and white markings seem familiar, and European explorers on the continent named them after the magpies of their homeland. But we now know that they're actually an evolutionary radiation of the species of songbirds, oscine passerines. Turns out they're Oceanic through and through, and no magpie at all - rather a butcherbird also related to the currawong. This International Bird of the Year 2017 was captured by Trevor Gosling in a Queensland mangrove, accompanied by the splash of falling seedpods and twigs.