It's intriguing that the origin of the design was never documented. A brief
look at some heraldry sites didn't find any discussion of whether a top view of
a bird is allowable, but I didn't find any examples of it, only undersides and
silhouettes that could be either. That and the colour of the bill either
discount magpie completely, or add support to the incompetent artist theory.
Peter Shute
Sent from my iPad
> On 16 Aug 2015, at 6:28 pm, Tony Russell <> wrote:
>
> Yes, it's a confusing pile of vernacular names isn't it and there , so far,
> appears to be no clear path between those names and the Piping Shrike
> emblem.
> It would appear that at some stage the authorities of the day decided to
> establish a state emblem - who they were and at what time this was is
> immaterial to the present discussion, the ever present question is and
> always has been just what bird the emblem was meant to represent. Because of
> large population of magpies it's quite likely that this bird was considered
> a suitable icon for the state of SA . Whether someone used a commissioned
> artist to produce a stylised picture of the bird or had a stab at it
> themselves, either from a dead specimen or from memory, the result in
> today's terms was not too accurate.
> The frontrunner suggestion has to be the Magpie with poor runners up being a
> Butcherbird or Magpie Lark but no-one has been able to give a definitive
> answer and I doubt they will. Interesting, but on the hand, does it really
> matter?
> Maybe we should change to the good old Pommie Sparrow, we have plenty of
> those. TIC.
>
> Tony.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Birding-Aus On Behalf Of
> John Walter
> Sent: Saturday, 15 August 2015 8:01 PM
> To:
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] Piping Shrike
>
> 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 a vernacular name for
> Black-backed Magpie. White-backed Magpie is listed as Piper, or White-backed
> Crow-Shrike. Other Crow-Shrikes are Pied (Pied Currawong), Sooty (Black
> Currawong), Black-
>
> winged, Grey, Brown & Leaden (Grey Currawong), , Hill (Clinking Currawong),
> Black-throated (Pied Butcherbird), Collared (Grey Butcherbird) .
>
>
>
> Cheers John
>
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