“Vicious, Aggressive Bird Stalks Cyclist”: The Australian Magpie (Cracticus tibicen) in the News

Sequence variation in the melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) does not explain continent-wide plumage color differences in the Australian Magpie (Cracticus tibicen).

The genetic basis of plumage color variation has already been determined for many model species; however, the genetic mechanisms responsible for intraspecific color variation in the majority of wild-bird species are yet to be uncovered. The Australian magpie (Cracticus tibicen) is a large black and white passerine which is widely distributed across the Australian continent. The proportion of me...

Beach-foraging Behaviour of Forest Ravens Corvus tasmanicus and an Australian Magpie Gymnorhina tibicen at Wilsons Promontory, Victoria

Audition and Hemispheric Specialization in Songbirds and New Evidence from Australian Magpies

The neural processes of bird song and song development have become a model for research relevant to human acquisition of language, but in fact, very few avian species have been tested for lateralization of the way in which their audio-vocal system is engaged in perception, motor output and cognition. Moreover, the models that have been developed have been premised on birds with strong vocal dim...

Stability of referential signalling across time and locations: testing alarm calls of Australian magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen) in urban and rural Australia and in Fiji

In many avian species, vocal repertoire expands and changes throughout life as new syllables are added and sounds adapted to neighbours and circumstances. Referential signals, on the other hand, demand stability and lack of variation so that their meaning can be understood by conspecifics at all times. It is not known how stable such signals may be when the context is changed entirely but the p...

Factors Influencing the Incidence of Bird-strikes at Melbourne Airport, 1986-2000

The results of 149 surveys of bird species’ distribution and abundance at Melbourne Airport between January 1997 and June 2000, together with local weather information and bird-strike data were used to assess the comparative importance of a number of variables affecting the incidence of bird-strikes at the airport. At least 36 bird and bat species were involved in ‘bird-strikes’ at Melbourne Ai...