Apostlebird Struthidea cinerea

Length 29–33 cm; wingspan 40–42 cm; weight 135 g.

The Apostlebird is highly gregarious and garrulous, occurring in small, sedentary, co-operatively breeding groups throughout the year.  These groups usually comprise 3–20 birds.  Apostlebirds sometimes occur in larger congregations during the non-breeding season at abundant sources of food; they are seldom seen singly or in twos.  They often associate with White-winged Choughs.  Apostlebirds are usually active and conspicuous, seldom silent, and usually bold and tame, especially round human habitation or activity (though some may be wary of people in some places), making them easily observed.  Their distinctive mud nests often indicate presence in an area (the nests smaller than similar nests of the White-winged Chough).  The species spends most time on the ground, but when disturbed, birds fly low to cover, often giving noisy, harsh scolding calls, with wing-beats that are broken by short glides with upswept wing-tips.  They often leap from branch to branch with their tails cocked and partly spread, often making long glides (of up to 50 metres) from a perch to the ground, or from tree to tree.  When on the ground, Apostlebirds walk and run strongly, with a steady gait, walking quickly with the tail swaying from side to side, just above the ground, but with no forward jerking of head (unlike the White-winged Chough), and run in short, quick bursts; they sometimes also hop, with tails flicked upwards, and then slowly subsiding; hops can be as long as twice the length of the bird.  Foraging is almost always on the ground, where they mainly take insects and seeds, using their bill to scratch at the ground and among litter, though they also occasionally forage in trees and shrubs.  They are often seen preening each other.

HABITAT
Apostlebirds mainly inhabit woodlands, including a wide variety of arid and semi-arid woodlands, and occur less often in forests and shrublands.  Preferred habitats include Black Box woodland with an understorey of chenopods, Buloke–Belah woodland and cypress-pine woodland.  The species has three main habitat requirements; these are: (1) tree cover (though the overall structure of the dominant vegetation may be unimportant); (2) an accessible source of seeds; and (3) bare ground with a moderate amount of litter on which to forage, with low ground cover that does not impede foraging activities; they also usually occur near water, as mud is needed to build nests.  Throughout its range, the Apostlebird commonly inhabits eucalypt woodlands, including mallee woodlands or riparian Black Box, Yellow Box and River Red Gums woodlands around wetlands, along watercourses and on floodplains.  In some regions, cypress-pine woodlands and shrublands are preferred, sometimes mixed with eucalypts or casuarinas, such as Buloke or Belah.  An extinct population of Apostlebirds in western Victoria formerly inhabited Buloke and Moonah woodlands.  The species occurs less often in low, open chenopod shrublands on floodplains.  Apostlebirds can sometimes tolerate high levels of habitat degradation, as groups have been recorded in highly degraded woodlands with a high proportion of exotic plants in the ground layer, heavy grazing pressure, no tree regeneration and no understorey; and they can persist in small patches of remnant vegetation of just a few hectares in extent, though these may need to be near other, larger patches of suitable habitat.  However, in northern Victoria, once an area of preferred cypress-pine habitat fell below 5% of the cover, the population of Apostlebirds declined.  Modified habitats that are sometimes inhabited include parks, gardens or cemeteries in towns, campsites and picnic grounds, and around homesteads, farmyards and paddocks with some trees.

DISTRIBUTION
Endemic to mainland Australia.

STATUS

• Declining in New South Wales
• Listed as a member of a declining Temperate Woodland Community in Victoria

THREATS
Extensive clearing of box–Buloke and cypress-pine woodlands during early 1900s, and associated changes in land-use, caused a decline in the species’ range in Victoria.  In other parts of inland south-eastern Australia, its range has expanded since European settlement, possibly as a result of provision of water.  Apostlebirds are readily attracted to artificial sources of food, such as scraps around homesteads and picnic areas, and grain scattered on the ground for fowl, and they are sometimes considered a nuisance round fowlyards, driving fowl away from food and occasionally killing them.  They are said to destroy large numbers of insect pests, but are also sometimes also considered a garden pest themselves, nipping off the shoots of germinating peas.  They are occasionally struck by vehicles on roads.  In the past, Apostlebirds were accidentally poisoned by eating grain laced with phosphorus that had been intended to kill Rabbits, and deliberately and legally shot, with open seasons declared in Qld, NSW, SA and NT.

MOVEMENTS
Sedentary

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