The bird on our state flag is a white-backed magpie – not the Murray magpie we thought

It seems the “swoopy boi” on our state flag is not the bird we thought it was...

South Australia, we need to have a talk about our flag. You know, the one with the magpie on it.

Yes, a magpie.

Despite those well-known bank ads and beloved sporting mascots, the bird we know as the “piping shrike” is not a magpie lark, aka a Murray magpie or a pee wee.

It’s a white-backed magpie and, according to retired engineer and keen bird watcher Ian Philp that’s a fact that South Australians should be both more aware of and immensely proud of.

Mr Philp is on one-man mission to correct the record. It’s not, he says, that he has anything against the cheeky little magpie lark it just that he’d like to see the magpie get its due.

And he says he can see how the confusion arose – many people don’t realise that the bird is facing backwards, looking over its shoulder.

“The original image of the piping shrike is very clearly a white-backed Magpie and cannot be confused with any other Australian bird,” Mr Philp says.

“The image on the State badge has been simplified a little but it is still clearly a white-backed magpie. The observer of the image must understand that they are looking at the back of the bird.”

Keen bird watcher Ian Philp with the SA state flag. Picture: Matt Loxton

Mr Philp said once it was understood that the observer was looking at the back of the bird it was clear that the markings matched the white-backed magpie.

Bank SA’s Piping Shrike – I’m not a magpie!

He said the terms “piping shrike” and “piping crow shrike” were commonly used at the turn of last century, when the state badge and flag was designed, to refer to the white-backed magpie.

An article from The Advertiser on March 14, 1903 headlined Another New Flag described the design as “a piping shrike, which is commonly known as the Australian magpie, standing on a staff of eucalyptus wood, with wings extended in front of the rising sun of the Commonwealth”.

Mr Philp, who wrote most of the Wikipedia entry on the piping shrike, said he’d like to see organisations such as Bank SA, whose Piping Shrike mascot is clearly based on a magpie lark, and the Adelaide 36ers who have a mascot called Murray magpie, consider moving to embracing our true state emblem.

A spokesman for the 36ers said there were no plans to change the team’s mascot.
“Murray is the name of our Magpie, and he will continue to be on the sidelines at Brett Maher Court for all our home games at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre,” he said.

Bank SA’s Piping Shrike, however, was more strident.
“To suggest a Piping Shrike is a magpie is preposterous,” the well-known mascot said.

“It’s like calling a unicorn a horse or, worse still, suggesting that eating devon is like eating a slice of fritz. It’s just not South Australian, is it?”

Originally published as The bird on our state flag is a white-backed magpie – not the Murray magpie we thought