Psophodidae – Whipbirds & Wedgebills

The Psophodidae is a family of passerine birds native to Australia and nearby areas. It has a complicated taxonomic history and different authors vary in which birds they include in the family. We follow the recently amalgamated (2025) AviList.

The whipbirds and wedgebills (Psophodes and Androphobus) are included. The Malaysian Rail-babbler Eupetes macrocerus was formerly sometimes placed in this family which would then have been called Eupetidae.

Since DNA sequencing showed that this family occupied a different place in the phylogenetic tree its name was changed to Psophodidae.

Whipbirds and wedgebills are 19–31 cm long. They are mainly olive-green or brown in colour and have a crest.

They are all found in Australia and or New Guinea, occurring in a range of habitats from rainforest to arid scrub. The Western Whipbird is considered to be near-threatened because of habitat loss and fires while the Papuan Whipbird is classed as data deficient.

They are terrestrial birds which fly fairly weakly and prefer to squat or run when disturbed. They forage on the ground feeding mainly on insects and other invertebrates. In the desert, quail-thrushes also eat some seeds. They build cup-shaped nests among shrubs or on the ground laying two or three eggs.

The sound of a cracking whip emanating from an Australian garden shrub marks many observers’ first encounter with birds in this family. Despite their name, however, some whipbirds don’t make this vocalisation, and those that do have much more diverse vocal repertoires than is at first apparent. All are mid-sized, rather heavy-bodied songbirds with long tails and earth-toned plumage, and most sport a crest of some sort.

In contrast to the multitudes of birds in this region that breed cooperatively, the psophodids, like the pachycephalids, are socially monogamous with simple biparental care. Largely insectivores, the best-known species occasionally eats fruit, first leaning back on tail and belly to transfer the fruit from bill to foot.