How to Identify: Common Black & White Aussie Birds

Learn to identify the most common black-and-white birds across Australia: the Willie Wagtail, Australian Magpie, Magpie-lark, Butcherbirds and Pied Currawong. We cover how to identify by sight and by ear. Plenty of bird photos, including of baby birds.
Bird Calls for Practicing:
Australian Magpie: xeno-canto.org/105995
Magpie-lark: xeno-canto.org/695186
Pied Butcherbird: xeno-canto.org/733295
Willie Wagtail: xeno-canto.org/233824
Pied Currawong: xeno-canto.org/558142
Our meetup and this content are free. If you'd like to contribute, you can buy me a coffee with the link below. Funds go towards video creation and meetup admin fees.
www.buymeacoffee.com/BirdsSEQ...
00:00 - Start
00:55 - Willie Wagtail
02:44 - Song: Willie Wagtail
02:56 - Australian Magpie
04:54 - Song: Australian Magpie
05:23 - Magpie-lark
07:15 - Song: Magpie-lark
07:24 - Butcherbirds
08:49 - Song: Pied Butcherbird
09:05 - Pied Currawong
10:54 - Song: Pied Currawong
11:02 - Size Comparison
11:54 - Cheatsheet
12:15 - Closing

[@justicetruthvegan83]

Thank you very much, very kind of you.. A wild magpie feeds from my balcony on RAW VEGANIC food up to 20 times a day. It is very friendly. I backpackers around Byron Bay NSW for 6 months about 33/34 years ago.

[@andyossie]

Well,...3 things i learned today... 1 the difference between male and female, 2 the black and white crow is a currawong, and 3 the sound of the currawong which is what I've heard many times over the years but never knew what the bird was that made the sound! 😄

[@birdwatchingse-qld2253]

That's great. I'm glad it was helpful 🙂

[@xenxike500]

These birds are awesome, have had butcherbirds on my lap, magpies bringing their babies to our house year after year, a couple of peewees visiting every day on the doorstep for a snack.We mix up mince meat with a powder called Insectivore, has ground up insects , minerals and vitamins as you should never feed them a diet of plain mince….The beautiful sounds from these birds are music to the ears.Never chase magpies as they could be your next backyard friends….

[@birdwatchingse-qld2253]

I wholeheartedly agree, they are definitely awesome 😊 Butcherbirds on your lap, lucky! Thanks for sharing the feeding tip.

[@gunterbecker8528]

Excellent ❤

[@birdwatchingse-qld2253]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@Corvid]

I adore Australian Magpies! Their call reminds me of trying to listen to a corrupted MP3 file 😂

[@birdwatchingse-qld2253]

It does sound like that! 64kbps 😂

[@VisiblyJacked]

I knew all of these by sight except the Currawong. I'm not quite sure why I've overlooked these here in SEQ. Either I haven't run into them as often as the others, or I misidentified them. Anyway, great video!

[@birdwatchingse-qld2253]

IMO there are less Currawongs in SEQ compared to the other B&W birds. You usually hear rather than see them. Their calls are one of my favourites!

[@zigzaggreg]

There used to be less Currawongs around Brissy except around more wooded areas but it seems since we started developing more of these they seem to have moved more into suburban areas such as Annerley and the like

[@michelleduncan36]

What about SA's bird emblem the shrike, I would have thought that this bird deserved a mention.

[@birdwatchingse-qld2253]

Hi, SA's emblem is the Piping Shrike, which is actually another common name for the Australian Magpie. The subspecies that lives down that way has a white back, whereas in Qld it's black. They are they all same species though. Almost all Australian birds have several common names describing the same bird (eg peewee, micky bird, etc). I know, it's confusing! Hope this helps www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/adelaide-afternoons/the-piping-shrike-doesnt-exist/8946800

[@ladysecretz]

Great video. But magpies also love cashews and currawongs are actually larger than magpies.

[@birdwatchingse-qld2253]

Cool, I didn't know about the cashews :-) You are correct about currawongs being bigger/longer (bill to tail tip) than the magpie. However, the magpie has an upright posture so it looks taller in the diagram than the currawong (with its lower set and forward posture). Link below shows a side-by-side. In future videos I might show how they compare length-wise, it's just hard to fit them all on the slide that's easy to understand. Thank you for the feedback ☺ soundcloud.com/themagpiewhisperer/juvenile-magpies-and-pied-currawongs-harmony?in=themagpiewhisperer/sets/australian-magpies

[@suchdevelopments]

Good day from Lismore, NSW. All of them come backyard, in Goonelabah.

[@birdwatchingse-qld2253]

Wow. You get them all in your backyard? Lucky 🙂

[@suchdevelopments]

@@birdwatchingse-qld2253 Yes, and more. I enjoy your videos. Could you keep them coming? Unfortunately, you don't have a support button, so you should. I would support you? 👉 My GOAL for 2024. 👈 I will leave Lismore NSW to continue around Australia starting at the end of 2024. I will travel approximately 120 kilometres a day. I will stay in a town with a pool, either outside or inside. Why do I swim in pools, you may ask? From Jan 2023, every week for five days, I swam for an hour of exercise and 60 lengths to 25 lengths of 25 m of GSAC pool. The goal is 6000 m by Jan 2024. I had a stroke on 4 July 2019. I am purchasing two CYPERTRUCK and your CYPERTRUCK to transport a team of four people. What do you think? I am mad. I will travel around Australia. I will travel around Australia on a CYBERTRUCK for six months starting at the end of September 2024. I will give myself until March 2024 to assemble a team to travel with me. I will travel approximately 120 kilometres each day. I will travel 18,000 kilometres in six months. The Route of the first leg will include all the pools between: • Lismore NSW - Perth City WA I have been swimming five days a week since January 2023 and will continue swimming at the above locations. I will stay in every town with a pool, outside or inside. I am now swimming 25 lengths of Goonellabah Pool, up from 15 measurements when I started. The goal is to swim 3000m by January 2024 a day for a three-day week. A total of nine kilometres a week. I will leave in September 2024 for six months. I will have it organised by the end of March 2024. I purchased two EVs and your EV to transport a team of four people. We will have a video on KZbin at the end of November 2022. Then, two videos a month will finish the project in 2025. I will raise a minimum of AU$1,500.00. Those who have helped me: • My wife, Kate & Sons, saves me in 4th Jule 2019 • Nurses and Doctors • Base Hospital and Ballina Rehabilitation Hospital • NSW Ambulance Service • All my friends and people have helped me. Lismore - Lismore Council - GSAC Baths ⌛ 13th & 14th April 2024⌛ - We are having a field day - Bi-directional Charging - Battery Electric Vehicles & Renewable Energy, Lismore Workers Sports Club. I am a PROJECT MANGERS and CIVIL ENGINEER who has worked in Singapore doing Tunnel Boring Machines, managing 160 engineers and architects from 1999 to 2005. Cheers, Ian Cleland

[@birdwatchingse-qld2253]

That's a great goal. Seeing Australia will be wonderful. RE: Contributions. I don't have anything like Patrion, but you can buy me a coffee in the following link. No pressure though, as long as people are watching and learning about birds, that's the main thing 😀 www.buymeacoffee.com/BirdsSEQMeetup

[@theburrellsshow4208]

im aussie but i feel like in my area piwis are more popular than magpies like they show up more often

[@birdwatchingse-qld2253]

Interesting. You must live in an area with high appeal to magpie-larks (an area with water access and good food). Similar to human real estate, bird territories shrink and grow depending on demand. In high demand areas territories are squashed closer together, so we'll see more groups of that species in that area. The opposite is also true. Magpies generally have larger territories than MGL so if an area was prime habitat for both species, you're likely to see less Magpies within the area. Hope this helps

[@basilpunton5702]

When did Peewee become piwi.

[@john_barnett]

5:25 peeee weeeee

[@birdwatchingse-qld2253]

It took a few attempts at recording those mnemonics cause I kept on laughing 😁

[@theburrellsshow4208]

The Unstoppable Word Duo.

[@TheHornetRider1]

What about White-winged Choughs? They're pretty common arent they?

[@birdwatchingse-qld2253]

It depends where you are. They are common in mid-east to mid-South Australia but away from the coast. They are uncommon everywhere else. I originally had Chough in the video but decided to remove it to reduce confusion as most of the east coast dwellers and the rest of Australians are unlikely to come across one. I did decide to move it to a future video though 🙂 The calls of WW Choughs are one of my favourite bird calls in all of Australia.

[@TheHornetRider1]

@@birdwatchingse-qld2253 I look forward to it. When they run I think they look like old time country women holding their dresses up out of the mud!🤣

[@birdwatchingse-qld2253]

That's a great way to remember them. I'll be on the lookout for this behaviour next time I head out west.

[@basilpunton5702]

Peewee, magpie lark, murray magpies, pied lark, mud lark. Only Peewee is really accurate, the others are misdirections. Neither magpie or lark are related to these.

[@birdwatchingse-qld2253]

Agree. Australia has too many confusing bird names eg Grey Shrikethrush, Black-faced Cuckooshrike, plus many more. Makes it hard for beginners