Grey Currawong

Overall, data on the social behaviour of the grey currawong is lacking, and roosting habits are unknown. It is generally shyer and more wary than its pied relative, but has become more accustomed to people in areas of high human activity in southwest Western Australia. Its undulating flight is rapid and silent. It hops or runs when on the ground. Birds are generally encountered singly or in pairs, but may forage in groups of three to eleven birds. Up to forty birds may gather to harvest a fruit tree if one is found. The black-winged subspecies is seldom seen in groups larger than four or five, while the clinking currawong may form groups of up to forty birds over the non-breeding season. There is some evidence of territoriality, as birds in the Wheatbelt maintain territories year-round there. The grey currawong has been recorded harassing larger birds such as the wedge-tailed eagle, square-tailed kite and Australian hobby. The species has been observed bathing by shaking its wings in water at ponds, as well as applying clay to its plumage after washing. Two species of chewing louse have been isolated and described from grey currawongs: (Menacanthus dennisi) from subspecies halmaturina on Kangaroo Island in South Australia, and Australophilopterus strepericus from subspecies arguta near Launceston in Tasmania. A new species of spirurian nematode, Microtetrameres streperae isolated from a grey currawong at Waikerie was described in 1977.

Grey currawongs are found right across the southern part of Australia from the Central Coast region of New South Wales, occurring south of latitude 32°S southwards and westwards, from the vicinity of Mudgee in the north and southwest to Temora and Albury onto the Riverina and across most of Victoria and southern South Australia to the fertile south-west corner of Western Australia and the semi-arid country surrounding it. The clinking subspecies is endemic to Tasmania, where it is more common in the eastern parts, but is absent from King and Flinders Islands in Bass Strait. There is an outlying population in the arid area where the Northern Territory meets South Australia and Western Australia. In general, the grey currawong is sedentary throughout its range, although it appears to be resident in the cooler months only in south Gippsland in eastern Victoria and the far south coast of New South Wales. The grey currawong is found in wet and dry sclerophyll forests across its range, as well as mallee scrubland, and open areas such as parks or farmland near forested areas. It also inhabits pine plantations. Preferences vary between regions; subspecies versicolor is more common in wetter forests in southeastern mainland Australia, while the Tasmanian subspecies arguta is found most commonly in lowland dry sclerophyll forest. The subspecies melanoptera and intermedia are found mainly in mallee scrublands and woodlands, while in Western Australia, subspecies plumbea is found in various forests and woodlands, such as jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata), karri (E. diversicolor), tuart (E. gomphocephala) and wandoo (E. wandoo), as well as paperbark woodlands around swampy areas, and acacia shrublands dominated by summer-scented wattle (Acacia rostellifera) and mulga (Acacia aneura) with Eremophila understory. The grey currawong appears to have declined across its distribution; formerly common, it became scarce in northern Victoria in the 1930s, and in northeastern Victoria in the 1960s. Habitat destruction has seen it decline in southeastern South Australia around Naracoorte and from many areas in the Western Australian Wheatbelt. It also became rare in the Margaret River and Cape Naturaliste regions after 1920, and vanished from much of the Swan Coastal Plain by the 1940s. One place which has seen an increase in numbers is the Mount Lofty Ranges in the 1960s. The species has never been common in the Sydney Basin and sightings have been uncommon and scattered since the time of John Gould in the early 19th century. The status of the species is uncertain in the Northern Territory, where it may be extinct. It has been classified as critically endangered there pending further information.

Not globally threatened.