White-winged chough
| White-winged chough | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Perched on a eucalypt | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Corcoracidae |
| Genus: |
Corcorax Lesson, 1831 |
| Species: | C. melanorhamphos |
| Binomial name | |
|
Corcorax melanorhamphos (Vieillot, 1817) |
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The white-winged chough (Corcorax melanorhamphos) is one of only two surviving members of the Australian mud-nest builders family, Corcoracidae, and is the only member of the genus Corcorax. It is native to southern and eastern Australia and is an example of convergent evolution as it is only distantly related to the European choughs that it closely resembles in shape, and for which it was named.
The white-winged chough was first described by French naturalist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1817 as Coracia melanorhamphos, other names given include Pyrrhocorax leucopterus by Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck in 1820, and Corcorax australis by French naturalist René-Primevère Lesson in 1830. before the current name was settled by Gregory Mathews in 1912. The specific epithet is derived from the Ancient Greek words melano- 'black' and rhamphos 'beak'.
It is placed in the family known as the mud-nest builders or Corcoracidae, written as Grallinidae in older books before the removal of the genus Grallina to the family Monarchidae. It is one of two remaining species, with the apostlebird (Struthidea cinerea), which differs in appearance but exhibits many behavioural similarities. The mudnest builder family Corcoracidae itself is now placed in a narrower 'Core corvine' group, which contains the crows and ravens, shrikes, birds of paradise, fantails, monarch flycatchers, and drongos.
It is only distantly related to the European chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax), and Alpine chough (P. graculus), which are members of the crow family Corvidae. The similarities in appearance of dark plumage and downturned bill are the result of convergent evolution.
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Wikipedia