Grey Shrikethrush

Fascinating facts about the Grey Shrikethrush

• Its scientific name means harmonious, and the bird earns it. The song is a rich, ringing series of whistles delivered with unusual clarity, and it is widely rated among the finest voices of any Australian bird, which is a considerable claim on that continent.
• It looks like almost nothing. Plain grey, soft brown across the back, no crest, no colour, no markings worth describing. Everything remarkable about this bird is in its voice, which is why people who know it by sound are often surprised the first time they see one.
• Unlike most songbirds it sings all year rather than only in the breeding season, and both sexes do it. Pairs will also duet, one answering the other across a patch of forest.
• It hunts by working slowly over bark and along the ground, taking insects and spiders, but also small lizards and the eggs and nestlings of other birds, which makes it a rather more serious predator than its mild appearance suggests.
• It ranges across nearly the whole of Australia, from Tasmanian wet forest to arid inland scrub, one of very few songbirds that occupy almost every habitat the continent has.

At a glance

About the Grey Shrikethrush

A plain grey bird with one of the most admired voices in Australia. It works quietly over bark and leaf litter across nearly every habitat the continent offers, hunting insects, spiders and the occasional lizard or nestling, and sings its clear ringing whistles all year rather than saving them for the breeding season. Familiar to anyone who has spent a morning in Australian bush, usually by sound long before sight.

Grey Shrikethrush photographed on Feravox

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