Pied Butcherbird - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The Pied Butcherbird was first described by the ornithologist John Gould in 1837 as Vanga nigrogularis, the type specimen collected near Sydney. It is one of six (or seven) members of the genus Cracticus known as butcherbirds. Within the genus, it is most closely related to the Tagula and Hooded Butcherbird. The three form a monophyletic group within the genus, having diverged from ancestors of the Grey Butcherbird around five million years ago.

Two subspecies are recognised; The nominate race nigrogularis is found across eastern Australia, and the smaller subspecies picatus is found in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and northern South Australia. The border between the two lies in the Gulf Country and is known as the Carpentarian Barrier. Although there is a demarcation in physical characters, this is not borne out genetically, and birds from northwestern Australia have affinities with the eastern subspecies. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences indicates the Pied Butcherbird has expanded rapidly from many refugia during the Pleistocene.

The butcherbirds, Australian Magpie and currawongs were placed in the family Cracticidae in 1914 by John Albert Leach after he had studied their musculature. American ornithologists Charles Sibley and Jon Ahlquist recognised the close relationship between woodswallows and the butcherbirds in 1985, and combined them into a Cracticini clade, which became the family Artamidae.

Black-throated Butcherbird is an alternate common name. Leach also called it the Black-throated Crow Shrike. ‘Jackeroo’ is a colloquial name from the Musgrave Ranges in Central Australia.