{{Short description|Subfamily of birds}} {{redirect|Bellmagpie|the species to which this name has sometimes been applied|Australian magpie}} {{Automatic taxobox | image = Piedbutcherbird.jpg | image_caption = Pied butcherbird (''Cracticus nigrogularis'') | taxon = Cracticinae | authority = Chenu & des Murs, 1853 }}
The '''Cracticinae''', bellmagpies and allies, gathers together 13 species of mostly crow-like birds native to Australasia and nearby areas.
Historically, the cracticines – currawongs, Australian magpie and butcherbirds – were seen as a separate family Cracticidae and, according to the 2018 Cements List, they still are.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/august-2018/|title = August 2018 | Clements Checklist}}</ref> With their 1985 DNA study, Sibley and Ahlquist recognised the close relationship between the woodswallows and the butcherbirds in 1985, and placed them in a Cracticini clade,<ref name="SibAhl85">{{cite journal|doi=10.1071/MU9850001|vauthors=Sibley CG, Ahlquist JE |year=1985|title=The phylogeny and classification of Australo-Papuan passerine birds|journal=Emu|volume=85|issue=1|pages=1–14|bibcode=1985EmuAO..85....1S |url=http://www.publish.csiro.au/?act=view_file&file_id=MU9850001.pdf|accessdate=2009-04-15}}</ref> now the family Artamidae.<ref name=CB08>{{cite book |title=Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds|vauthors=Christidis L, Boles WE |year=2008 |publisher=CSIRO Publishing |location=Canberra |isbn=978-0-643-06511-6 |page=196}}</ref> The two species of peltops were once placed with the monarch flycatchers but are now placed here.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Sibley |first=CG|author2=JE Ahlquist |year=1984|title=The relationships of the Papuan genus ''Peltops''|journal=Emu|volume=84|issue=3|pages=181–183 | doi = 10.1071/MU9840181 |bibcode=1984EmuAO..84..181S }}</ref>
The cracticines have large, straight bills and mostly black, white or grey plumage. All are omnivorous to some degree: the butcherbirds mostly eat meat; Australian magpies usually forage through short grass looking for worms and other small creatures; and currawongs are true omnivores, taking fruit, grain, meat, insects, eggs and nestlings. The female constructs bulky nests from sticks, and both parents help incubate the eggs and raise the young thereafter.<ref name=EoB>{{cite book |editor=Forshaw, Joseph|author= Howley, Ian|year=1991|title=Encyclopaedia of Animals: Birds|publisher= Merehurst Press|location=London|pages= 226–227|isbn= 1-85391-186-0}}</ref>
The cracticines, despite their fairly plain, utilitarian appearance, are highly intelligent and have extraordinarily beautiful songs of great subtlety. Particularly noteworthy are the pied butcherbird, the pied currawong and the Australian magpie.
==Species of Cracticinae== Five genera are recognised. The Australian magpie is classified in its own genus ''Gymnorhina''. A 2013 molecular study has shown it to be the sister taxon to the black butcherbird (''Melloria quoyi'').<ref name="kearns13">{{cite journal|doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2012.11.020|author1=Kearns, Anna |author2=Joseph, Leo |author3=Cook, Lyn G. |year=2013|title=A Multilocus Coalescent Analysis of the Speciational History of the Australo-Papuan Butcherbirds and their Allies|journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution|volume=66|issue=3|pages=941–52 |pmid=23219707|bibcode=2013MolPE..66..941K }}</ref>
* Subfamily Cracticinae: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Image !! Genus !! Living species |- |175px || ''Peltops'' {{small|Wagler, 1829}} || * Mountain peltops, ''Peltops montanus'' * Lowland peltops, ''Peltops blainvillii'' |- |175px || ''Melloria'' {{small|(Mathews, 1912)}} || * Black butcherbird, ''Melloria quoyi'' |- |175px || ''Gymnorhina'' {{small|Gray, GR, 1840}} || * Australian magpie, ''Gymnorhina tibicen'' |- |175px || ''Cracticus'' {{small|Vieillot, 1816}} || * Grey butcherbird, ''Cracticus torquatus'' * Silver-backed butcherbird, ''Cracticus argenteus'' * Black-backed butcherbird, ''Cracticus mentalis'' * Pied butcherbird, ''Cracticus nigrogularis'' * Hooded butcherbird, ''Cracticus cassicus'' * Tagula butcherbird, ''Cracticus louisiadensis'' |- |175px || ''Strepera'' {{small|Lesson, 1831}} || * Pied currawong, ''Strepera graculina'' * Black currawong, ''Strepera fuliginosa'' * Grey currawong, ''Strepera versicolor'' |- |}
''Miostrepera canora'' was described from a proximal and a distal humerus and scapula found in the St Bathans fauna from the Early Miocene in Otago, New Zealand. These were most similar to modern ''Strepera'' species and reveal that the Cracticinae were previously native to Zealandia and indicates overwater dispersal.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Worthy |first1=T. H. |last2=Scofield |first2=R. P. |last3=Hand |first3=S. J. |last4=Archer |first4=M. |last5=De Pietri |first5=V. L. |year=2025 |title=A large cracticine passerine (Aves, Artamidae, Cracticinae) from the Early Miocene, St Bathans Fauna of New Zealand |journal=PalZ |doi=10.1007/s12542-025-00736-x |doi-access=free }}</ref>
''Kurrartapu johnnguyeni'' was described from a proximal tarsometatarsus recovered from the Riversleigh site in Queensland. It is early Miocene in age and is closer to ''Strepera/Cracticus'' than to ''Peltops''. The bird was likely similar in size to the extant black butcherbird.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Jacqueline M. T. Nguyen |author2=Trevor H. Worthy |author3=Walter E.Boles |author4=Michael Archer |date=2013|title=A new cracticid (Passeriformes : Cracticidae) from the Early Miocene of Australia|journal=Emu|volume=113|issue=4|pages=374–82|doi=10.1071/MU13017|bibcode=2013EmuAO.113..374N |s2cid=85069421 }}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q1975486}}
* Category:Bird subfamilies Category:Birds of Oceania Category:Taxa named by Jean-Charles Chenu Category:Taxa named by Marc Athanase Parfait Œillet des Murs