Family CORVIDAE Leach, 1820

Museums

Regional Maps

• Corvidae Leach, W.E. 1820. Eleventh Room. pp. 65-70 in Leach, W.E. Synopsis of the Contents of the British Museum. London : British Museum.

  Type genus:

   Corvus Linnaeus, 1758.

Introduction

The corvidae are a large polyphyletic cosmopolitan assemblage of some 117 species in 24 genera that include such diverse groups such as jays and true magpies; today many are distributed within the new and old worlds but only 4% of these occur within Australia. Australia has five well-defined crow and raven species, in a single genus Corvus, with eight subspecies (Christidis & Boles 1994; Schodde & Mason 1999). Four of these species are endemic to Australia, only one, C. orru, occurs naturally outside the island continent and only then in nearby New Guinea, its outlying islands, and islands of the eastern Indonesian Archipelago.

Crows and ravens are well dispersed throughout continental Australia including one Tasmanian representative. They occupy a variety of habitats from Alpine meadows, forests and woodlands, marine situations, the interior's shrubland and grasslands, and human environment.

While principally terrestrial feeders they will become arboreal to accommodate an available food source. Australian representatives of the genus Corvus can be either gregarious or be in small family groups. Large flocks of a small species C. mellori are frequently encountered especially during cooler months; and aggregations occur about plentiful prey. Such flocks may number in thousands but are brief assemblages, the birds dispersing after feeding. Larger birds (C. coronoides, tasmanicus, bennetti and orru) tend to occur in the small family units that form loose aggregations occasionally. The genus is omnivorous, although invertebrates constitute the larger proportion of their diet that is obtained mainly through gleaning and probing. Other foods include many vegetable and animal groups that are often part of human excess and disposal (Barker & Vestjens 1990).

Both adult crows and ravens construct the nest a bulky cup-shaped stick nests; these are usually at heights in tall eucalypts in a horizontal fork. The nests are well lined using finer materials such as grasses, hair or wool. Upwards of five eggs constitute a complete clutch, they are pale to dark in colour that ranges from a buff to greenish blue and all are well marked with brown or grey dots, spots and blotches. Only the female incubates the eggs and both sexes tend to feeding and caring for the young.

Excluded Taxa

Vagrant Species

CAVS:0867
CORVIDAE: Corvus splendens Vieillot, 1817 [House Crow; vagrant to Victoria & WA] — Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1999. The Directory of Australian Birds : Passerines. A Taxonomic and Zoogeographic Atlas of the Biodiversity of Birds in Australia and its Territories. Collingwood, Australia : CSIRO Publishing x 851 pp.; Christidis, L. & Boles, W.E. 2008. Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing 288 pp. [198]

CAVS:9952
CORVIDAE: Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) [Black-billed Magpie] — Christidis, L. & Boles, W.E. 2008. Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing 288 pp. [198]

Diagnosis

All Australian species have iridescent black plumage; the bases of the feathers differ, being white in the crows, orru and bennetti and grey in coronoides, tasmanicus and bennetti. All have bluish grey irides as young that changes to white irides as the birds mature. Structually their 'bills are stout, with a terminal tomial notch on the maxilla; and [their] nostrils are often completely covered with nasal bristles or feathering.'

Diagnosis References

Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1999. The Directory of Australian Birds : Passerines. A Taxonomic and Zoogeographic Atlas of the Biodiversity of Birds in Australia and its Territories. Collingwood, Australia : CSIRO Publishing x 851 pp.

General References

Barker, R.D. & Vestjens, W.J.M. 1990. The Food of Australian Birds. 2 Passerines. Canberra : CSIRO Australia.

Christidis, L. & Boles, W.E. 1994. The Taxonomy and Species of Birds of Australia and its Territories. Monograph 2. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union iv 112 pp.

Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1999. The Directory of Australian Birds : Passerines. A Taxonomic and Zoogeographic Atlas of the Biodiversity of Birds in Australia and its Territories. Collingwood, Australia : CSIRO Publishing x 851 pp.

History of changes