The Grey Butcherbird

Sydney birds Butcherbird Thumb gallery Bird forum SydneyNature.com

From its appearance, the grey butcherbird may not look very special, but wait until you hear it sing! It has one of the most fantastic melodic whistles of all Australian birds (actually, the pied butcherbird is supposed to be a better singer, but so far we have not found it in Sydney). Sometimes the song is started by the female and completed by the male, yet it is so perfectly timed that it sounds like it is coming from a single bird. The butcherbird is capable of many other sounds other than this melody: refer to the bottom of this page for several grey butcherbird recordings that you can listen to.

What a beautiful eye this butcherbird has:

[grey butcherbird: click for larger image]

Notice the hook on the beak, which is good for tearing meat.

[grey butcherbird: click for larger image]

Here the parent butcherbird is preparing to feed its adolescent. There are more pictures of the feeding in our grey butcherbird thumbnail gallery. See also the feeding on the video clip below!

[grey butcherbird: click for larger image]

Butcherbird movies:

  • Butcherbird feeding its child for the first time ever caught on video!

  • Butcherbird duet.

  • Screaming butcherbird.

  • Butcherbird replying to another butcherbird's song. The initial singing is far in the background (turn up your volume to hear it), but the visible butcherbird is quite loud.

  • Whistling butcherbird.

  • Another whistling butcherbird.

Butcherbird sounds/noises/whistles:
(Remark: Some browsers will not render these properly the first time you click on them. The second attempt should work.)


Sydney birds Butcherbird Thumb gallery Bird forum SydneyNature.com