Bird Guide

Black-faced Cuckooshrike vs White-bellied Cuckooshrike

Black-faced Cuckooshrike (Coracina novaehollandiae)

Black-faced Cuckooshrike

Coracina novaehollandiae

Medium118 gForest

Adult birds have a prominent black face and throat, grey plumage, white underparts and a somewhat hooked bill. The size varies between 32 cm and 34 cm. They are slow-moving, inconspicuous birds, with a shrill, screaming call, sounding like creearck.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Damien O'Donnell · CC BY 4.0
White-bellied Cuckooshrike (Coracina papuensis)

White-bellied Cuckooshrike

Coracina papuensis

Medium63 gWoodland

This species exhibits a short black mask extending from the beak to the eyes (lores) but not beyond with a fine white rear eye-ring. The head and upperparts including upper wings are pale blue-grey with tail feathers tending towards darker grey. Despite the name, the belly can be white to grey depending on region and subspecies. The subspecies Coracina papuensis robusta can present with a dark morph that has extensive black plumage on the neck and chest that can be barred at the edges. There is little variation between the sexes.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: (c) Roy Lowry, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Roy Lowry · cc-by

Where you might meet both

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Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Black-faced Cuckooshrike and White-bellied Cuckooshrike.