Coracina novaehollandiae
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The black-faced cuckooshrike (Coracina novaehollandiae) is a common omnivorous passerine bird native to Australia and southern New Guinea. It has a protected status in New South Wales, under the National Parks and Wildlife Act, 1974.
They are widely distributed in almost any wooded habitat throughout the region, except in rainforests. But they can also occur in urban areas, and are a fairly common sight on power lines in Australian cities such as Sydney and Perth.
The black-faced cuckooshrike was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the thrushes in the genus Turdus and coined the binomial name Turdus novaehollandiae. Gmelin based his description on the "New Holland thrush" that had been described in 1783 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book A General Synopsis of Birds. Lathan had examined a specimen in the collection of the naturalist Joseph Banks that had come from Adventure Bay in southern Tasmania. Adventure Bay had been visited by Captain James Cook in January 1777 on his third voyage to the Pacific Ocean. A painting of the... Wikipedia →
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alice Springs Desert Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 2 | Healesville Sanctuary | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 3 | Taronga Zoo | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 4 | Caversham Wildlife Park | 🇦🇺 Australia |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike sighting in Melbourne on a given day, based on 4,139 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 53rd most-seen of the 236 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September to January
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike in Melbourne on a given day, against about 10% in February to August, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
4th of 5
Of the 5 cities where we can rate Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike sightings, Melbourne ranks 4th at about 10%. The best odds are in Brisbane (Australia, about 40%), Perth (Australia, about 30%) and Sydney (Australia, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike is recorded against all the birds logged in Melbourne (4,139 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
