Description
The Black Currawong is about 50 cm (20 in) long with an 80 cm (32 in) wingspan. The male is slightly larger and heavier than the female; males of the nominate subspecies average 405 g (14.3 oz) to females' 340 g (12 oz). Male wings average around 27 cm (10.8 in) and tails 19 cm (7.6 in), while female wings average 25.8 cm (10.2 in) and tails 18.5 cm (7.4 in). Data for the two island subspecies is limited, but males of subspecies colei have been measured at 360 and 398 g (12.7 and 14.0 oz) with 26 cm (10.2 in) wings on average, and a female at 335 g (11.8 oz) with a 24 cm (9.8 in) wing, and subspecies parvior at 370–410 g (13.1–14.5 oz) for males with 26 cm (10.2 in) wings on average, and 308 g (10.9 oz) and 25 cm (10 in) wing for a female. The sexes are similar in plumage, which is all black except for white patches at the tips of the wings and tail. The bill and legs are black and the eyes bright yellow. The white tips line the trailing edges of the wings in flight, and a paler arc across the bases of the primary flight feathers is also visible on the underwing. Although there is no seasonal variation to the plumage, the black may fade a little to a dark brown with wear. Immature birds have browner-tinged plumage, and a yellow gape until they are two years old. The oldest recorded age of a Black Currawong has been 15 years; a bird was sighted in July 2004 near Fern Tree, Tasmania, less than 2 km (1.2 mi) from where it had been banded in July 1989.
Read more about this topic: Black Currawong
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“God damnit, why must all those journalists be such sticklers for detail? Why, they’d hold you to an accurate description of the first time you ever made love, expecting you to remember the color of the room and the shape of the windows.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“Once a child has demonstrated his capacity for independent functioning in any area, his lapses into dependent behavior, even though temporary, make the mother feel that she is being taken advantage of....What only yesterday was a description of the child’s stage in life has become an indictment, a judgment.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)