Apostlebird

The apostlebird (Struthidea cinerea), also known as the grey jumper, lousy jack or happy family,[2] is a quick-moving, gray or black bird about 33 cm (13 in) long.

It is one of two remaining species, with the white-winged chough (Corcorax melanorhamphos), which differs in appearance but exhibits many behavioural similarities.

[4] The mudnest builder family Corcoracidae itself is now placed in a narrower "core corvine" group, which contains the crows and ravens, shrikes, birds of paradise, fantails, monarch flycatchers, and drongos.

Measuring around 33 cm (13 in) in length, the apostlebird is a predominantly dark grey bird with a long black tail tinted greenish in sunlight.

Dry open woodland is the preferred habitat, especially Callitris in New South Wales and Casuarina in Queensland, and Lancewood-Bulwaddi communities in the Northern Territory.

The nest is a deep cup-shaped structure made of grasses held together with mud or sometimes manure in a tree fork up to seven or eight metres above the ground.

Mud nest high in a fig tree