Alice Springs Birds •

Alice Springs Birds > Alice Springs Birds Index

The Magpie-lark (Grallina cyanoleuca) is a distinctively small to medium size black and white bird, that is also known as the Peewee, after the sound of its distinctive calls.

Magpie-lark (Grallina cyanoleuca)
Magpie-lark (Grallina cyanoleuca), Olive Pink Botanic Garden, Alice Springs, NT © Dorothy Latimer

They are a common and widespread species, found in urban, rural areas and arid desert regions, that extends through Central Australia to the far north-west of Western Australia.

You often see them here in Alice Springs, especially in people’s garden and around bird baths, as well as in the botanic garden, parks and reserves.


  • Scientific classification
  • Kingdom: Animalia
  • Phylum: Chordata
  • Class: Aves
  • Order: Passeriformes
  • Family: Monarchidae
  • Genus: Grallina
  • Species: Grallina cyanoleuca

Alice Springs BirdsAlice Springs Birds — Index Babblers Black-faced Cuckooshrike Brown Falcon Channel-billed Cuckoo Crested Pigeon Galah Magpie-lark Musk Duck Port Lincoln Ringneck Rainbow Bee-eater Sacred Kingfisher Sanderling Singing Honeyeater Southern Boobook Spinifex Pigeon Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater Splendid Fairy-wren Spotted Dove Wedge-tailed Eagle Western Bowerbird Whistling Kite White-plumed Honeyeater Willie Wagtail Yellow-throated Miner

Alice Springs FaunaAlice Springs Native Bees Alice Springs Beetles Alice Springs Birds Alice Springs Gastropods (Gastropoda) Alice Springs Insects Alice Springs Marsupials Alice Springs Reptiles Alice Springs Spiders

Alice Springs FloraAlice Springs Flora Index Acacia ligulata Annual Yellowtop Bougainvillea Apple Bush Burdekin Plum Carob Tree (Ceratonia siliqa) Cattle Bush Desert Cotton (Aerva javanica) Desert Oak Eremophila Wildberry Feijoa sellowiana Flannel Cudweed Fork-leaf Corkwood Ghost Gum Golden Everlasting Kurrajong Lemon-flowered Gum MacDonnell’s Desert Fuchsia Native Bluebell Native Tomato Needlewood Olive Tree Perennial Yellow Top Rat’s Tail River Red Gum Inland River Red Gum Rosy Dock Round-leaved Mallee Scurvy Grass Silky Eremophila Stemodia viscosa Striped Mintbush Sturt’s Desert Pea Sturt’s Desert Rose Tangled Leschenaultia Tar Vine Weeping Bottlebrush White Cedar Yellow Billybutton Yellow-keeled Swainsona Yellow Oleander