I think it's just a misrepresentation of (probably) a magpie ( because they
are so common here in SA) done by some incompetent government official back
at the 1900 era. Possibly a poor attempt at a stylised emblem.
No-one really knows the answer to this old chestnut.
Tony.
-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus On Behalf Of
Doug Holly
Sent: Saturday, 15 August 2015 1:15 PM
To: Birding Aus
Subject: Piping Shrike is South Aus emblemic bird
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 if you look at the bird actually depicted on the flag, it is not a
white backed magpie because it isn't uniformly black underneath. It isn't a
great representation of a magpie-lark either (no white eyebrow, and only
white flecks on the wings rather than fully white underwings,) but it's
closer than to a magpie. Or to a Pied butcherbird, which has the black hood
but even more white underwing.
Basically whoever designed the flag was no John Gould.
<HR>
<BR> Birding-Aus mailing list
<BR>
<BR> To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
<BR> http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
</HR>
<HR>
<BR> Birding-Aus mailing list
<BR>
<BR> To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
<BR> http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
</HR>
|
