Woodswallows are soft-plumaged, somber-coloured passerine birds found in Australia and the islands nearby. Given their moderate size—about the same as a Common Starling—and dull plumage, they are amongst the easiest of birds to observe and recognise. In flight, they look very like large, stiff_winged swallows, and like swallows, they mostly eat flying insects.
Woodswallows are smooth, agile flyers with moderately large, semi-triangular wings. They are among the very few passerines birds that soar, and can often be seen feeding just above the treetops. One sedentary species aside, they are nomads, following the best conditions for flying insects, and often roosting in large flocks.
Although woodswallows have a brush-tipped tongue they seldom use it for gathering nectar.
FAMILY ARTAMIDAE
Subfamily Cracticinae: currawongs, butcherbirds, peltops, and Australian Magpie
Discussion: The musculature is more massive than that of the Artaminae, reflecting the different feeding habits which mark these distinct adaptive lines.
In this species, the anterior end of the zygoma has a notch-like eminence dorsally (A)--buttressed by a similar one posteroventrally (B)--so that, when the palate is fully retracted and the tip of the mandible depressed in maximum adduction, this notch will fall in place behind the ethmoidal wing (C).
I would say relationships of the vireos are with the Monarchidae, which I remove from Muscicapidae, and that the Vanginae, Prionopinae, Pityriasidinae, Cracticinae, Artaminae, and Cyelarhini (including Vireolanius) evolved separately from the Monarchidae as endemic shrikes in their respective faunal regions.
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