AUSTRALIAN MAGPIE

81     AUSTRALIAN MAGPIE       Gracticus tibicen

Australia     (81)

Also known as Black-backed, Western or White-backed magpie. Ranges over most of Australia except area in central WA and north of NT. Found anywhere where there are trees and open areas of bare soft earth. 38-44 cm.

NOTE:    8 subspecies in Australia.
white backed:  (3 ssp) e and s of Great Divide from se Q through Vic to Eyre Pen.
   tyrannica:             southern NSW across southern Victoria
   telonocua:            Eyre and Yorke pen, Gawler Ranges, Kangaroo Is
   hypoleuca:           King and Flinders Island

black backed:  (4 ssp) much of n and inland Aust.
   tibicen:                se Qld,  e NSW
   terraereginae:      Gulf country, Cape York, central NSW, n SA
   eylandtensis:       Top End, Kimberley across to Arnhamland
   longirostris:         WA, Shark Bay to Pilbara

   dorsalis ssp:       s WA
   papuana ssp:       a New Guinea subspecies which maybe a vagrant to Australia

Tasmanian subspecies, hypoleuca photographed at Scottsdale, Tasmania February 2017

Tasmanian subspecies, hypoleuca photographed on King Island, June 2018

Subspecies dorsalis, photographed near Perth, WA, July 2018