| Hooded butcherbird | |
|---|---|
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| Photo taken in Biak, Papua | |
| Conservation status | |
 Least Concern (IUCN 3.1) | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Artamidae |
| Subfamily: | Cracticinae |
| Genus: | Cracticus |
| Species: | C. cassicus |
| Binomial name | |
| Cracticus cassicus (Boddaert, 1783) | |
The hooded butcherbird (Cracticus cassicus) is a species of passerine bird in the family Artamidae. It is found in New Guinea. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest.
Taxonomy
The hooded butcherbird was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1780 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen collected in New Guinea by the naturalist Pierre Sonnerat. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Ramphastos cassicus in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The type locality was restricted to Vogelkop (Bird's Head Peninsula), northwest New Guinea, by the American biologist Ernst Mayr in 1941. The hooded butcherbird is now placed in the genus Cracticus that was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot with the hooded butcherbird as the type species. The generic name is from the Ancient Greek kraktikos meaning "noisy" or "clamorous". The specific epithet cassicus is from the French "Cassican" which in turn is from "Cassique", the French word for cacique used from orioles.
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 butcherbird, and the two are related to the pied butcherbird of Australia. 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 cassicus is found on mainland New Guinea and islands to the west, as well as Kairiru, Mushu and Basilaki Islands. The larger race hercules occurs on the D'entrecasteaux Archipelago and Trobriand Islands.
A local name in Ketengban is moro-moro.
Description
Measuring 32–35 cm in length, the male and female are similar in appearance. The plumage is predominantly black and white, the bird bearing a black head, nape and throat, white underparts, rump, and back, and black and white mantle. The tail is black, with a broad white tip. The robust pale bluish-grey bill is hooked and tipped black. The iris is black or dark brown, and the legs and feet are dark grey to black. It can be distinguished from the black-backed butcherbird by its black throat.
The hooded butcherbird has a complex fluting song, made up of many varied components. Birds may duet with each other, or mimic other species such as the rusty pitohui, little shrikethrush, spangled drongo, or helmeted friarbird.
Distribution and habitat
Found on New Guinea and surrounding islands, the hooded butcherbird inhabits forested country mainly in lowland areas to elevations of 650 m, or occasionally 1450 m. It is fairly common and may also be found close to human habitation in coconut groves.
Behaviour
The hooded butcherbird is carnivorous. Birds are found in pairs or small family groups.
Records indicate breeding may occur at any time. Located on a branch 8.5–25 m above ground, the nest is a bowl constructed of twigs and sticks. Two or three pale olive-brown or -green eggs are laid, blotched darker brown and measuring 31.8-35.6 x 23.7-25.6 mm.
References
- BirdLife International (2018). "Cracticus cassicus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T22706276A130417275. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22706276A130417275.en. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
- Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc de (1780). "Le cassican". Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux (in French). Vol. 13. Paris: De L'Imprimerie Royale. pp. 199–200.
- Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc de; Martinet, François-Nicolas; Daubenton, Edme-Louis; Daubenton, Louis-Jean-Marie (1765–1783). "Le cassican, de la Nouvelle Guinée". Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle. Vol. 7. Paris: De L'Imprimerie Royale. Plate 628.
- Boddaert, Pieter (1783). Table des planches enluminéez d'histoire naturelle de M. D'Aubenton : avec les denominations de M.M. de Buffon, Brisson, Edwards, Linnaeus et Latham, precedé d'une notice des principaux ouvrages zoologiques enluminés (in French). Utrecht. p. 38, Number 628.
- Mayr, Ernst (1941). List of New Guinea birds : a systematic and faunal list of the birds of New Guinea and adjacent islands. New York: American Museum of Natural History. p. 164.
- Vieillot, Louis Pierre (1816). Analyse d'une Nouvelle Ornithologie Élémentaire (in French). Paris: Deterville/self. p. 37.
- Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 93, 120. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- Kearns, Anna; Joseph, Leo; Cook, Lyn G. (2013). "A multilocus coalescent analysis of the speciational history of the Australo-Papuan butcherbirds and their allies". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 66 (3): 941–52. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2012.11.020. PMID 23219707.
- Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Bristlehead, butcherbirds, woodswallows, ioras, cuckooshrikes, Shriketit". World Bird List Version 9.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 20 August 2019.
- ^ Coates, Brian J. (1990). The Birds of Papua New Guinea, Including the Bismarck Archipelago and Bougainville. Vol. 2: Passerines. Alderley, Qld.: Dove. p. 368. ISBN 978-0-9590257-1-2.
- Diamond, Jared; Bishop, K. David (1999). "Ethno-ornithology of the Ketangban People, Indonesian New Guinea". In Medin, Douglas L.; Atran, Scott (eds.). Folkbiology. MIT Press. p. 28. ISBN 0-262-63192-X.
- Coates, p. 369