Magpie Lark a real lover

Magpie larks are seen throughout Australia.

The charming and dainty magpie lark is a true lovebird that sings love songs to its mate and stays faithful to one partner, occupying the same territory for successive seasons.

Also known as mudlarks or peewees, magpie larks have a dual "lovers' song" - the male calling "te he" and the female answering with "pee-o-wit", or vice versa. This song is reflected in its Noongar name: Dilabit.

These neat black and white birds use their markings as camouflage to infiltrate true magpies' flocks, thus enjoying the protection of the bigger and more aggressive birds. However when in season they can become very territorial towards other magpie larks, and are sometimes seen attacking their reflections in shop windows or the wing mirrors of parked cars.

Magpie larks are well known to attack their own reflection.

Their sex can easily be determined by their facial markings, with the adult male sporting white eyebrows and cheeks and the female having a white forehead, chin and throat. Immature magpie larks look similar to the male but have much darker eyes and beaks.

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Magpie larks are found throughout Australia and favour sparsely vegetated flats around lakes and swamps as well as farmland.

In the metropolitan region they are usually a non-breeding visitor or passing migrant from January to May, although an increasing number are taking up residency.

The number of magpie larks in Perth has increased with urbanisation.

In the early 1900s, magpie larks were an uncommon sight in Perth, but urbanisation appears to have agreed with them.

In 1915 they were breeding at Gingin, and by the early 1920s at Cannington and Guildford.

Locally, magpie larks breed from August to mid-November, with both partners building a bowl-shaped nest of mud and grass, lined with fine grass and feathers, in a tall tree.

The female then lays three to five white, violet-blotched eggs, which, like a good husband, the male bird helps to incubate.

Both parents then care for the young.