Monarchidae
Magpie-lark
Grallina cyanoleuca
The Mud-Cup Clerk
- Length
- 27 cm
- Wingspan
- 40 cm
- Family
- Monarchidae
Identification
A pied ground-bird of the suburb, often called peewee. The male wears a black throat and a white face; the female a white throat with a black line through the eye. Both have a white shoulder, a black back, and a pale bill. They walk rather than hop, and they own the nature strip with a clerk's sense of duty. Not a magpie, and not a lark — a monarch flycatcher in formal dress.
Distinctive marks
- Bold black-and-white contrast
- Male: black throat; female: white throat
- Pale bill
- White shoulder patch
- Purposeful walking gait
Behaviour & ecology
Pairs hold a street or a wet oval and build a bowl of mud on a beam, a light, or a high fork. They strut the lawn for insects, call in duet, and will scold a magpie that crosses the beat. The nest is a civic project; both birds plaster.
Voice
A ringing, far 'pee-o-wit' and a liquid, antiphonal duet. Once the ear has it, every Peninsula morning contains one.
On the Peninsula
Every nature strip, school oval, and wet verge from Frankston to the Heads. They follow mown grass and a source of mud.
Season
Year-round. Mud-nests go up after rain in late winter and spring.
Diet
Ground insects, worms, and the odd tadpole from a puddle.
Conservation
Secure. A beneficiary of open suburban ground and eaves.
Lore & resonance
They keep the accounts of a street in mud and call. A pair that has chosen your eave has filed you, quietly, as part of the parish.
If you would attract them
They need mud after rain and open ground. A saucer of wet clay in a dry spring has been used. Leave the eave; the nest is the point.
