Dusky Woodswallow.
Photo: K Vang and W Dabrowka © Bird Explorers
Dusky Woodswallow, with feathers fluffed up.
Photo: K Vang and W Dabrowka © Bird Explorers
Dusky Woodswallow. Note white tail tips.
Photo: K Vang and W Dabrowka © Bird Explorers
Distribution map of Artamus cyanopterus
Map © Birds Australia Birdata
Dusky Woodswallow
Scientific name: Artamus cyanopterus
Family: Artamidae
Order: Passeriformes
What does it look like?
Description
The Dusky Woodswallow is a smoky deep brown to grey bird. The wings are dark blue grey, edged white, the tail is black with a broad white tip and the underwings are silvery-white. The bill is blue tipped black and the eye is dark brown. Young birds are grey-brown, streaked and mottled buff to cream. This species moves in flocks of 10 to 30 birds, which cluster together to roost.
Similar species
The Dusky Woodswallow has a distinctive white patch on the outer wing. It tends to be more smoky brown than most of the other woodswallows, with the similarly coloured Little Woodswallow, A. minor, being much smaller (12 cm), darker and lacking the wing patch.
Where does it live?
Distribution
The Dusky Woodswallow has two separate populations. The eastern population is found from Atherton Tableland, Queensland south to Tasmania and west to Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. The other population is found in south-west Western Australia.
Habitat
The Dusky Woodswallow is found in open forests and woodlands, and may be seen along roadsides and on golf courses.
Seasonal movements
Nomadic; south-eastern population migrates north in autumn.
What does it do?
Feeding
The Dusky Woodswallow feeds on insects taken on the wing, as well as from foliage and on the ground. It also eats nectar from flowers.
Breeding
The Dusky Woodswallow nests colonially in 'neighbourhoods'. The nest is a loose bowl of twigs, grass and roots, lined with fine grass, and is placed in a tree fork, behind bark, in a stump hollow or in a fence post, about 1 m - 10 m above the ground. Each pair builds the nest, incubates the eggs and feeds the young.
References
Strahan, R. (ed) 1996. Finches, Bowerbirds and Other Passerines of Australia. Angus and Robertson and the National Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife, Sydney.
Simpson, K and Day, N. 1999. Field guide to the birds of Australia, 6th Edition. Penguin Books, Australia.