Piping up as a slight side issue to the Piping Shrike saga I have a mild interest in vernacular names of birds. I can find no reference in the literature to Piping-Shrike other than Wikipedia and other associated Google articles to do with the SA flag. However I can find references to Piping Crow-Shrike as … Read more
Some people like to try too hard. Of course it is a white-backed magpie (rear view), although the name used at the time was different but the name clearly equates to Magpie (from other evidence). And the old name of Piping Shrike is arguably no more correct or wrong a choice than Magpie. Except that … Read more
If you look at the bird on the flag you can see it is a REAR VIEW of a White-backed Magpie, Gymnorhina hypoleuca, and it is sitting on a perch and the perch goes under it’s tail and it is looking over it’s left shoulder, it is probably on the verge of taking off. Well … Read more