Pied Currawong - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The Pied Currawong was first described by English ornithologist George Shaw in 1790 as Coracias strepera, although Strepera was adopted as a generic name. Its binomial names were derived from the Latin strepera, meaning "noisy", and graculina for resembling a Jackdaw. Pied Crow-shrike is an old vernacular name from colonial days, and the term "pied" refers to two or more colors in blotches. Other common names include Pied Chillawong, Currawang, Charawack, Kurrawack, Tallawong, Tullawong, Mutton-bird, Otway Forester, and Pied Afternoon-tea Bird. The onomatopoeic term currawong itself is derived from the bird's call. However, the exact origin of the term is unclear; the most likely antecedent is the word garrawaŋ from the indigenous Jagera language from the Brisbane region, although the Darug word gurawaruŋ from the Sydney basin is a possibility. Yungang as well as Kurrawang and Kurrawah are names from the Tharawal people of the Illawarra region.

Its closest relative is the Black Currawong (S. fuliginosa) of Tasmania, which has sometimes been considered a subspecies. Together with the larger Grey Currawong (S. versicolor), they form the genus Strepera. Although crow-like in appearance and habits, currawongs are only distantly related to true crows, and instead belong to the family Artamidae, together with the closely related Australian Magpie and the butcherbirds. The affinities of all three genera were recognised early on and they were placed in the family Cracticidae in 1914 by ornithologist John Albert Leach after he had studied their musculature. Ornithologists Charles Sibley and Jon Ahlquist recognised the close relationship between woodswallows and butcherbirds in 1985, and combined them into a Cracticini clade, which became the family Artamidae.