Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
THE SONG BIRDS
THE BABBLING THRUSHES
Coachwhip Bird
We should not omit the Coach whip Bird (Psophodes crepitans) of Australia, which has gained for itself this curious designation on account of the resemblance of the notes of the male to the sound of a whip-lash.”Starting with a limpid, long-drawn sound closely resembling the noise produced by the whirling of a whip-lash preparatory to its being swished through the air to terminate in the sharp crack so well known, the male bird gradually merges his voice into the swish of the lash, ending in a loud, sharp, crack-like note. The volume of sound is so great that it can often be heard a quarter of a mile away.”— Mattingley. The call of the male is usually answered by the female with a softer, two-note call, which is so different that they are not usually supposed to be made by the same species.
The Coachwhip Bird, which finds its home in the dense scrubs of the mountain sides in Victoria and New South Wales, is a handsome crested species about ten inches in length, greenish black above and blackish below, the cheeks and sides of the throat white, and the center of the breast and of the abdomen mottled with white, as are the outermost tail-feathers. It builds a neat, circular nest of grasses and rootlets, only a few feet from the ground, in dense scrub, and lays two handsome white or greenish white eggs which are mottled and blotched with brown.