Talk:Magpie-lark

Copied text
This article seems to have a lot of text verbatim from http://www.bird.net.au/bird/index.php?title=Magpie-lark, im not sure who copied who

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 07:50, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

They are not known to attack people.
This is very wrong. I myself witnessed the magpie-lark attacking people, two times around October 2007 and twice this year in September, all instances at the Fawkner Park and right in front of the Alfred Hospital, Commercial Road in Melbourne. The Magpie-larks swoop on people around (nearby their nesting tree) and peck people's eyes. In one instance the bird managed to peck right into the eye ball and the victim needed to see a doctor. They're very fast, attacking from behind and turning quickly into a person's face. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.51.160.32 (talk) 10:38, 18 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Strange. If there is a published source which says this we can add it. Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 17:58, 18 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Sounds like a Magpie (not a Magpie-Lark) to me. Aviceda  talk  18:04, 18 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I agree the report above is most likely an Australian Magpie. Note this report is from Melbourne, where the "Magpie-lark" is known under other names, so the person reporting probably thought this article is about the Australian Magpie. But strangely, i have been "attacked", just once by a "Magpie-lark", in Canberra circa 2000. (BTW i don't know what they call these birds in Canberra. Where i come from they are "peewee".) Not a very agressive attack, but similar in style to a magpie, and with a perfect imitation of a magpie attack call. This felt really weird. I've never heard of it happening otherwise, and i guess it's very rare. 198.142.12.197 (talk) 11:15, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

I was attacked by one of these today. It went for my eye.It was definitely a Magpie-lark and not a Magpie. This was in Darwin. I've been in Australia for a year and I've seen them all around but i thought they were pretty harmless...if not annoying and loud. But today I learned they were stealthy killers. Beware. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 1.150.159.137 (talk) 10:45, 8 May 2012 (UTC)

I've been swooped several times, always by the same male, in the same place, and always during mating season. Seems to be a 'personality' thing. Hayaku (talk) 06:23, 16 October 2017 (UTC)

Link useless.
The link - While containing a parameter to take you to specific page, takes you to default page for site. —Preceding unsigned comment added by MarkN0062 (talk • contribs) 20:45, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

File:Male magpie lark in suburban garden.jpg to appear as POTD soon
Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Male magpie lark in suburban garden.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on January 7, 2011. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2011-01-07. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page so Wikipedia doesn't look bad. :) Thanks!  howcheng  {chat} 17:46, 5 January 2011 (UTC)

Taxobox image of male
Snowmanradio recently replaced the old FP of a male in the infobox with another, but I'm unclear why it's better. Some discussion here would be appreciated. --99of9 (talk) 03:28, 4 April 2011 (UTC)
 * I concur, and think the FP is better and should be reinstated. Sabine's Sunbird  talk  04:37, 4 April 2011 (UTC)

More info about their singing.
The duet-style singing of the peewee (call it what you will) needs a little bit more elaboration. The two-note call that gives it one of its common names ("peewee") is sung in an interleaved style. One bird sings the "pee", the other sings the "wee". The formal name for this kind of singing is "antiphonal", meaning more-or-less "opposing voices". 58.167.64.35 (talk) 12:08, 23 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Wikipedia really needs more content on duet bird calls (for example, it could cite ), perhaps as a subsection of bird vocalisation. However, this article is the wrong place to keep such an expanded general section on bird duets. Also, inline citations needed. Cesiumfrog (talk) 19:26, 3 December 2013 (UTC)

More common names?
There is an anecdotal story that this is the Australian bird with the most common names. Not sure how you would go about getting a credible reference for that. The most amusing common name for this guy that I have heard is "Percy Pisswhacker". 58.167.64.35 (talk) 12:11, 23 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Sounds like a challenge....there are definitely heaps...Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 00:42, 28 January 2017 (UTC)
 * The difficulty is knowing whether any of these names were ever really current. For the birds in the UK there is Swainson's 1885 Provincial names and folk lore of British birds with long lists of names for every species - for the chaffinch there is this. - Aa77zz (talk) 11:34, 28 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Wow, what a great book! Regarding this species, certainly mudlark (what Victorians called them), peewee (what we call them) and magpie-lark (IOC name and becoming more prevalent/absolute name) are all very common. The good thing is finding a source that gives some context - when and where names were used. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 12:08, 28 January 2017 (UTC)

Swooping avoidance
The long block of text "Native birds and their nests ... helmets like antennae" (in this version) reads like a how-to and was lifted from a source which is (a) specific to WA, and (b) generic to all swooping birds. I think we can remove all of that rather than trying to rework it into encyclopaedic style; hope that doesn't upset anybody.

(The source itself is still significant because it does list the peewee as a bird that swoops on humans, something I was surprised to learn.)

It makes sense to talk about anti-swooping practices in an article like Australian magpie. The magpie is notorious for that behavior, so if an Australian sees somebody with a spiky bike helmet, s/he will immediately think "magpie". But we don't need to repeat the same advice for every bird that swoops.

Pelagic (talk) 13:56, 30 August 2015 (UTC)


 * Wow, did I write that seven years ago? The memory eludes me. But here it is in black-and-white. ⁓ Pelagic ( messages ) 23:24, 18 February 2023 (UTC)

Taxonomy
This includes a direct copy of several lines from the Red Wattlebird entry. I'd delete it but I don't know which indigenous names listed apply to wattlebirds or magpie-larks. Can somebody help please? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:8003:1015:9E00:1D29:7137:9484:5C16 (talk) 02:50, 7 July 2018 (UTC)

Vieillot's description
For convenience, I've cleaned the OCR from BHL.

From Galerie des oiseaux du Cabinet d'histoire naturelle du Jardin du roi. Tome 1, 1834. Pages 242, 243. There is a fine illustration by Oudart at plate 150.

5ème Division. GRALLINE, Grallina.

Bec grêle, droit, un peu cylindrique, convexe en dessus ; mandibule supérieure échancrée et courbée vers le bout ; l'inférieure entière.

Narines l'ondes.

Langue...

Tarses allongés, nus, annelés.

Doigt intermédiaire réuni à la base avec l'externe, totalement séparé de l'interne.

Ongles antérieurs très-petits, grêles; postérieur robuste et très-crochu.

Ailes allongées, à penne bâtarde courte; deuxième et troisième rémiges les plus longues de toutes.

Queue médiocre, à douze rectrices.

Cette division n'est composée que d'une seule espèce qui se trouve en Australasie, et dont on ne connaît que la dépouille.

LA GRALLINE NOIRE et BLANCHE, Grallina Melanoleuca.

Pl. CLI. [sic.]

Superciliis, pectore, ventre, uropygio caudâque partim albis; gutture, collo anteriori, alis nigris. Mas. Fronte gulâque albis. Femina.

La Graline noire et blanche, ''deuxième édit. du nouv. Dict. d'his. nat., tom. 13 ,pag.'' 401.

Le mâle de cette espèce a les sourcils, les côtés de la gorge et du cou, la poitrine, les parties postérieures, le bas du dos, le croupion, la plus grande partie des pennes caudales et une bande longitudinale sur chaque aile d'un beau blanc; cette bande, part de sa partie antérieure et s'étend presque jusqu'à l'extrémité de ses pennes intermédiaires ; le reste du plumage et les pieds sont noirs ; le bec est de cette couleur vers son extrémité et blanchâtre dans le reste. La femelle en diffère principalement en ce qu'elle a la gorge et le front blancs.

Machine translation (DeepL French, Google Latin, with small of human tweaks): 5th Division. GRALLINE, Grallina.

Beak small, straight, a little cylindrical, convex above; upper mandible indented and curved towards the end; the lower one whole.

Nostrils wavy.

Tongue...

Tarsi elongated, naked, ringed.

Intermediate digit joined at the base with the external one, totally separated from the internal one.

Anterior nails very small, spindly; posterior robust and very hooked.

Wings elongated, with short bastard feather; second and third remiges the longest of all.

Tail mediocre, with twelve rectrices.

This division is composed of only one species which is found in Australasia, and of which one knows only the remains.

THE BLACK AND WHITE GRALLINE, Grallina Melanoleuca.

[Latin description:] The eyebrows, breast, belly, rump, and tail are partly white; throat, front neck, wings black. Male. The forehead is white. Female.

The black and white Gralline, second edition of the new Dictionary of natural history, vol. 13, pag. 401.

The male of this species has the eyebrows, the sides of the throat and neck, the breast, the posterior parts, the lower back, the rump, the greater part of the tail feathers and a longitudinal band on each wing of a beautiful white; this band, starts from its anterior part and extends almost up to the end of its intermediate pinnae; the remainder of the plumage and the feet are black; the beak is of this color towards its extremity and whitish in the rest. The female differs mainly in that she has a white throat and forehead. ⁓ Pelagic ( messages ) 21:45, 18 February 2023 (UTC)


 * I went ahead and uploaded File:La Gralline noire et blanche, Grallina melanoleuca. Oudart et Molle, 1834.jpg
 * La Gralline noire et blanche, Grallina melanoleuca. Oudart et Molle, 1834.jpg ⁓ Pelagic ( messages ) 23:20, 18 February 2023 (UTC)