Coracina novaehollandiae
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
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 Rottnest Island on a given day, based on 38 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 48th most-seen of the 81 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike in Rottnest Island on a given day, against under 5% in March–April, August–September and December, the lowest months. That is one of Rottnest Island's wettest months, with about 120 mm of rain against 5 mm in December.
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.
21st of 24
Of the 24 parks where we can rate Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike sightings, Rottnest Island ranks 21st at about 10%. The best odds are in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park (Australia, about 50%), Hattah-Kulkyne National Park (Australia, about 40%) and Royal National Park (Australia, about 20%). All parks ranked.
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike that you can see in Rottnest Island (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Australian Raven (about 90%), Welcome Swallow (about 90%) and Singing Honeyeater (about 70%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike is recorded against all the birds logged in Rottnest Island (38 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
