[3] The black-faced woodswallow was formally described in 1817 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot and given the current binomial name Artamus cinereus.

[6] Although Vieillot gave the locality as the island of Timor, he had copied the description by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck of the "L'angroyan gris" from "la nouvelle Galle meridionale" (New South Wales) that had been published in 1807.

This confirms that multiple criteria such as plumage, song, and mtDNA, nDNA and interbreeding determine species and subspecies.

The white-vented subspecies A. c. normani and A. c. inkermani are found on the Cape York Peninsula and northern Queensland respectively.

Juvenile woodswallows have a brown body and wing coloration with buff streaks and a pale yellow beak.

Although it can be partly nomadic, the woodswallow prefers open eucalypt woodlands, scrub, and spinifex in arid and semi-arid conditions.

[16] They are communal breeders, with documented feeding of young by numerous birds,[17] probably as an adaptation to an erratic climate in arid and semi-arid conditions.

The fledglings are at risk from predators such as hawks, butcher birds and kookaburras, but are kept away by alarm calls and attacking behaviour of the parents.

[16] The woodswallow nesting sites occur closer to more open areas, on gravel slopes and glimmer grass flats.

[16] This loss has been attributed to vegetation thickening as a result of inappropriate fire regimes, which has contributed to increased predation of the golden-shouldered parrot.

Although the current conservation status of black-faced woodswallow is least concern, there have been significant regional declines, particularly on the Cape York Peninsula.

Storm-burning has produced a more open vegetation structure, which is beneficial for insect feeding and nesting by the woodswallows.