Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike

Apart from the obvious black face of the mature adult, one of the best identifiers of the Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike is its trilling, churring call often repeated several times. Another is the way it folds its wings on landing, which is the reason for its alternative common name: Shufflewing.

The Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, Coracina novaehollandiae (Coracina = little raven, and novaehollandiae = New Holland, an old name for Australia) is an endemic bird that is fairly common in this district, especially in summer (some references call it the ‘summer bird’). It is mostly described as nomadic-migratory.

There is some evidence that the same birds return to the same territory each season. The Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike inhabits open woodlands and ‘fringe’ habitats, generally avoiding ‘closed’ forests and rainforests.

Larger insects and their larvae are a favourite food, and BFCs often seem to arrive on cue when there is an outbreak of farmland pest insects. They fly with long undulations – a bit like the Grey Shrike-thrush – and often perch on an exposed limb to survey their territory for evidence of their next meal.