Home»Other Lands»7/26-8/12/2017 Australia with Grandkids»8/5/2017 A Magpie-lark Threatens a Larger Australian Magpie

Everyone's a critic...

Two birds share a treetop at dawn. One sings to greet the day. (And the Australian magpie is known for its interesting and varied song.) The smaller bird reacts by flying above the singer, threatening. When the larger bird shows little fear, the smaller one shrugs and flies off to another, quieter perch.

I made up the shrug.

I know this is a male magpie-lark: the female has a white throat; the male has a black throat and a white "eyebrow". I don't know the gender of the Australian magpie.

As often happened, the Australian magpie was named after an unrelated European bird it superficially resembled. Then the magpie-lark was named after *it*.