Magpies are
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
s of the
Corvidae
Corvidae is a cosmopolitan family of oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies, choughs, and nutcrackers. In colloquial English, they are known as the crow family or corvids. Currently, 13 ...
family. Like other members of their family, they are widely considered to be intelligent creatures. The
Eurasian magpie
The Eurasian magpie or common magpie (''Pica pica'') is a resident breeding bird throughout the northern part of the Eurasian continent. It is one of several birds in the crow family (corvids) designated magpies, and belongs to the Holarctic ra ...
, for instance, is thought to rank among the world's
most intelligent creatures, and is one of the few non-mammal species able to recognize itself in a
mirror test
The mirror test—sometimes called the mark test, mirror self-recognition (MSR) test, red spot technique, or rouge test—is a behavioral technique developed in 1970 by American psychologist Gordon Gallup Jr. as an attempt to determine whether an ...
. They are particularly well known for their songs and were once popular as cagebirds. In addition to other members of the genus ''
Pica'', corvids considered as magpies are in the genera ''
Cissa'', ''
Urocissa
''Urocissa'' is a genus of birds in the Corvidae, a family that contains the crows, jays, and magpies.
The genus was established by German ornithologist Jean Cabanis in 1850. The type species was subsequently designated as the red-billed blue m ...
'', and ''
Cyanopica
''Cyanopica'' is a genus of magpie in the family Corvidae. They belong to a common lineage with the genus ''Perisoreus''. The generic name is derived from the Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch o ...
''.
Magpies of the genus ''Pica'' are generally found in temperate regions of Europe, Asia, and western North America, with populations also present in Tibet and high-elevation areas of Kashmir. Magpies of the genus ''Cyanopica'' are found in East Asia and the
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...
. The birds called
magpies in Australia are, however, not related to the magpies in the rest of the world.
Name
References dating back to
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
call the bird a "pie", derived from Latin ''pica'' and cognate to French ''pie''; this term has fallen out of use. The tendency in previous centuries was to give birds common names, such as robin redbreast (which now is called the
robin), jenny wren, etc. The magpie was originally variously maggie pie and mag pie. The term "
pica" for the human disorder involving a compulsive desire to eat items that are not food is borrowed from the Latin name of the magpie (''Pica pica''), for its reputed tendency to feed on miscellaneous things.
Systematics and species
According to some studies, magpies do not form the
monophyletic
In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...
group they are traditionally believed to be; tails have elongated (or shortened) independently in multiple lineages of corvid birds. Among the traditional magpies, two distinct lineages apparently exist. One consists of
Holarctic
The Holarctic realm is a biogeographic realm that comprises the majority of habitats found throughout the continents in the Northern Hemisphere. It corresponds to the floristic Boreal Kingdom. It includes both the Nearctic zoogeographical region ...
species with black and white colouration, and is probably closely related to
crow
A crow is a bird of the genus ''Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not pinned scientifical ...
s and Eurasian
jay
A jay is a member of a number of species of medium-sized, usually colorful and noisy, passerine birds in the Crow family, Corvidae. The evolutionary relationships between the jays and the magpies are rather complex. For example, the Eurasian m ...
s. The other contains several species from
South
South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...
to
East Asia
East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...
with vivid colouration, which is predominantly green or blue. The
azure-winged magpie
The azure-winged magpie (''Cyanopica cyanus'') is a bird in the crow family. It is 31–35 cm long and similar in overall shape to the Eurasian magpie (''Pica pica'') but is more slender with proportionately smaller legs and bill. It belong ...
and the
Iberian magpie
The Iberian magpie (''Cyanopica cooki'') is a bird in the crow family. It is long and similar in overall shape to the Eurasian magpie (''Pica pica'') but is more slender with proportionately smaller legs and bill. It belongs to the genus ''Cyan ...
, formerly thought to constitute a single species with a most peculiar distribution, have been shown to be two distinct species, and are classified as the genus ''Cyanopica''.
Other research has cast doubt on the taxonomy of the ''Pica'' magpies, since ''P. hudsonia'' and ''P. nuttalli'' may not be different species, whereas the
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
n race of ''P. pica'' is genetically very distinct from the other Eurasian (as well as the North American) forms. Either the North American, Korean, and remaining Eurasian forms are accepted as three or four separate species, or else only a single species, ''Pica pica'', exists.
Holarctic (black-and-white) magpies
*Genus ''
Pica''
**
Eurasian magpie
The Eurasian magpie or common magpie (''Pica pica'') is a resident breeding bird throughout the northern part of the Eurasian continent. It is one of several birds in the crow family (corvids) designated magpies, and belongs to the Holarctic ra ...
, ''Pica pica''
**
Black-billed magpie
The black-billed magpie (''Pica hudsonia''), also known as the American magpie, is a bird in the corvid family found in the western half of North America. It is black and white, with black areas on the wings and tail showing iridescent hints o ...
, ''Pica hudsonia'' (may be
conspecific
Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species.
Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organ ...
with ''P. pica'')
**
Yellow-billed magpie
The yellow-billed magpie ''(Pica nuttalli)'', also known as the California magpie, is a large bird in the crow family that is restricted to the U.S. state of California. It inhabits the Central Valley and the adjacent chaparral foothills and m ...
, ''Pica nuttalli'' (may be conspecific with ''P. (pica) hudsonia'')
**
Asir magpie, ''Pica asirensis'' (may be
conspecific
Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species.
Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organ ...
with ''P. pica'')
**
Maghreb magpie
The Maghreb magpie (''Pica mauritanica'') is a species of magpie found in North Africa from Morocco east to Tunisia. It can be distinguished from the Eurasian magpie by the patch of blue skin behind its eye, the narrower white belly, the shor ...
, ''Pica mauritanica'' (may be
conspecific
Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species.
Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organ ...
with ''P. pica'')
**
Oriental magpie, ''Pica sericea'' (may be conspecific with ''P. pica'')
**
Black-rumped magpie
The black-rumped magpie (''Pica bottanensis'') is a species of magpie found in central Bhutan to west-central China. It was formerly classified as a subspecies of the Eurasian magpie (''Pica pica'').
A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2 ...
. ''Pica bottenensis'' (may be conspecific with ''P. pica'')
Oriental (blue and green) magpies
*Genus ''
Urocissa
''Urocissa'' is a genus of birds in the Corvidae, a family that contains the crows, jays, and magpies.
The genus was established by German ornithologist Jean Cabanis in 1850. The type species was subsequently designated as the red-billed blue m ...
''
**
Taiwan blue magpie
The Taiwan blue magpie (''Urocissa caerulea''), also called the Taiwan magpie, Formosan blue magpie (), or the "long-tailed mountain lady" (; Taiwanese Hokkien: Tn̂g-boé soaⁿ-niû), is a bird species in the crow family. It is endemic to Taiwan ...
, ''Urocissa caerulea''
**
Red-billed blue magpie
The red-billed blue magpie (''Urocissa erythroryncha'') is a species of bird in the crow family, Corvidae. It is about the same size as the Eurasian magpie, but has a much longer tail, one of the longest of any corvid. It is long and weighs .
T ...
, ''Urocissa erythrorhyncha''
**
Yellow-billed blue magpie
The yellow-billed blue magpie or gold-billed magpie (''Urocissa flavirostris'') is a passerine bird in the crow and jay family, Corvidae. It forms a superspecies with the Taiwan blue magpie and the red-billed blue magpie. The species ranges acro ...
, ''Urocissa flavirostris''
**
White-winged magpie, ''Urocissa whiteheadi''
**
Sri Lanka blue magpie
The Sri Lanka blue magpie or Ceylon magpie (''Urocissa ornata'') is a brightly coloured member of the family Corvidae, found exclusively in Sri Lanka. This species is adapted to hunting in the dense canopy, where it is highly active and nimble. I ...
, ''Urocissa ornata''
*Genus ''
Cissa''
**
Common green magpie
The common green magpie (''Cissa chinensis'') is a member of the Corvidae, crow family, roughly about the size of the Eurasian jay or slightly smaller. In the wild specimens are usually a bright green colour (often fades to turquoise in captivit ...
, ''Cissa chinensis''
**
Indochinese green magpie
The Indochinese green magpie (''Cissa hypoleuca'') or yellow-breasted magpie, is a passerine bird of the crow family, Corvidae. It is native to mainland southeast Asia (Indochina) and adjacent China.
This species' yellow undersides make it disti ...
, ''Cissa hypoleuca''
**
Javan green magpie
The Javan green magpie (''Cissa thalassina'') is a passerine bird in the crow family, Corvidae. This critically endangered species is endemic to montane forests on the Indonesian island of Java.Van Balen S et al., 2011. Biology, taxonomy and con ...
, ''Cissa thalassina''
**
Bornean green magpie
The Bornean green magpie (''Cissa jefferyi'') is a passerine bird in the crow family, Corvidae. It is endemic to montane forests on the southeast Asian island of Borneo.Van Balen S et al., 2011. Biology, taxonomy and conservation status of the Sh ...
, ''Cissa jefferyi''
Azure-winged magpies
*Genus ''
Cyanopica
''Cyanopica'' is a genus of magpie in the family Corvidae. They belong to a common lineage with the genus ''Perisoreus''. The generic name is derived from the Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch o ...
''
**
Azure-winged magpie
The azure-winged magpie (''Cyanopica cyanus'') is a bird in the crow family. It is 31–35 cm long and similar in overall shape to the Eurasian magpie (''Pica pica'') but is more slender with proportionately smaller legs and bill. It belong ...
, ''Cyanopica cyanus''
**
Iberian magpie
The Iberian magpie (''Cyanopica cooki'') is a bird in the crow family. It is long and similar in overall shape to the Eurasian magpie (''Pica pica'') but is more slender with proportionately smaller legs and bill. It belongs to the genus ''Cyan ...
, ''Cyanopica cooki''
Other "magpies"
*The
black magpie
''Platysmurus'' is a genus of treepie in the family Corvidae
Corvidae is a cosmopolitan family of oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies, choughs, and nutcrackers. In coll ...
s, ''Platysmurus'', are
treepie
The treepies (known also as crypsirinines from the subfamily's name, ''Crypsirininae'') comprise four closely related genera (''Dendrocitta, Crypsirina, Temnurus'' and ''Platysmurus'') of long-tailed passerine birds in the family Corvidae. There ...
s; they are neither magpies, nor as was long believed, jays. Treepies are a distinct group of corvids externally similar to magpies.
*The
Australian magpie
The Australian magpie (''Gymnorhina tibicen'') is a black and white passerine bird native to Australia and southern New Guinea. Although once considered to be three separate species, it is now considered to be one, with nine recognised subs ...
, ''Cracticus tibicen'', is conspicuously "pied", with black and white plumage reminiscent of a Eurasian magpie. It is a member of the family
Artamidae
Artamidae is a family of passerine birds found in Australia, the Indo-Pacific region, and Southern Asia. It includes 24 extant species in six genera and three subfamilies: Peltopsinae (with one genus, ''Peltops''), Artaminae (with one genus conta ...
and not a corvid.
*The
magpie-robin
The magpie-robins or shamas (from ''shama'', Bengali and Hindi for ''C. malabaricus'') are medium-sized insectivorous birds (some also eat berries and other fruit) in the genus ''Copsychus''. They were formerly in the thrush family Turdidae, but ...
s, members of the genus ''Copsychus'', have a similar "pied" appearance, but they are
Old World flycatcher
The Old World flycatchers are a large family, the Muscicapidae, of small passerine birds restricted to the Old World (Europe, Africa and Asia), with the exception of several vagrants and two species, Bluethroat (''Luscinia svecica)'' and Norther ...
s, unrelated to the corvids.
Human interactions
Cultural references
East Asia
In East Asian cultures, the magpie is a very popular bird and is a symbol of good luck and fortune.
The magpie is a common subject in Chinese paintings. It is also often found in traditional Chinese poetry and couplets. In addition, in the folklore of China, all the magpies of the
Qixi Festival
The Qixi Festival ( zh, 七夕), also known as the Qiqiao Festival ( zh, 七巧, links=no), is a Chinese festival celebrating the annual meeting of The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, Zhinü and Niulang in Chinese mythology... The festival is cele ...
every year will fly to the
Milky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye ...
and form a bridge, where the separated
Cowherd and Weaver Girl
"The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl" are characters found in Chinese mythology and characters appearing eponymously in a romantic Chinese folk tale. The story tells of the romance between Zhinü (; the weaver girl, symbolizing the star Vega) and N ...
will meet. In their culture the Milky Way is like a river, and the Cowherd and Weaver Girl refer to the famous
α-Aquilae and
α-Lyrae of modern Astronomy, respectively. For this reason the magpie bridge has come to symbolize a relationship between men and women.
Magpies have an important place in the birth myth of
Ai Xinjue Luo Bukuri Yushun, the ancestor of the
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
.
The magpie is a national bird of
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
.
Europe
In European culture the magpie is reputed to collect shiny objects such as wedding rings and other valuables, a well known example being
Rossini
Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...
's opera ''
La Gazza Ladra
''La gazza ladra'' (, ''The Thieving Magpie'') is a ''melodramma'' or opera semiseria in two acts by Gioachino Rossini, with a libretto by Giovanni Gherardini based on ''La pie voleuse'' by Théodore Baudouin d'Aubigny and Louis-Charles Caigni ...
'' (''The Thieving Magpie''). A recent study conducted by
Exeter University
, mottoeng = "We Follow the Light"
, established = 1838 - St Luke's College1855 - Exeter School of Art1863 - Exeter School of Science 1955 - University of Exeter (received royal charter)
, type = Public
, ...
found that
Eurasian magpie
The Eurasian magpie or common magpie (''Pica pica'') is a resident breeding bird throughout the northern part of the Eurasian continent. It is one of several birds in the crow family (corvids) designated magpies, and belongs to the Holarctic ra ...
s express
neophobia
Neophobia is the fear of anything new, especially a persistent and abnormal fear. In its milder form, it can manifest as the unwillingness to try new things or break from routine. In the context of children the term is generally used to indicate a ...
when presented with unfamiliar objects, and were less likely to approach or interact with the shiny objects - metal screws, foil rings and
aluminium foil
Aluminium foil (or aluminum foil in North American English; often informally called tin foil) is aluminium prepared in thin metal leaves with a thickness less than ; thinner gauges down to are also commonly used. Standard household foil is typ ...
- used in the experiments. However, magpies are naturally curious like other members of the corvid family, and may collect shiny objects, but do not favour shiny objects over dull ones.
In England, "a magpie’s nest" was a phrase used to describe something untidy and usually of little value. There is also a superstitious belief associated with magpies in the UK, whereby the sight of a single magpie is said to bring sorrow or bad luck, the sight of two magpies is said to bring joy or good luck and viewing more than two magpies is said to determine the sex of a future child, as described in the traditional nursery rhyme "
One for Sorrow".
As pests
Magpies are common
orchard pests in some regions of the world.
Gallery
Thimindu 2010 02 20 Sinharaja Sri Lanka Blue Magpie 1.jpg, Sri Lanka blue magpie
The Sri Lanka blue magpie or Ceylon magpie (''Urocissa ornata'') is a brightly coloured member of the family Corvidae, found exclusively in Sri Lanka. This species is adapted to hunting in the dense canopy, where it is highly active and nimble. I ...
Cissa hypoleucor concolor qtl1.jpg, Indochinese green magpie
The Indochinese green magpie (''Cissa hypoleuca'') or yellow-breasted magpie, is a passerine bird of the crow family, Corvidae. It is native to mainland southeast Asia (Indochina) and adjacent China.
This species' yellow undersides make it disti ...
Blauelester donana.jpg, Iberian magpie
The Iberian magpie (''Cyanopica cooki'') is a bird in the crow family. It is long and similar in overall shape to the Eurasian magpie (''Pica pica'') but is more slender with proportionately smaller legs and bill. It belongs to the genus ''Cyan ...
Pica nuttalli.jpg, Yellow-billed magpie
The yellow-billed magpie ''(Pica nuttalli)'', also known as the California magpie, is a large bird in the crow family that is restricted to the U.S. state of California. It inhabits the Central Valley and the adjacent chaparral foothills and m ...
References
Further reading
*
External links
Magpie videos, photos and soundson eBird
{{Authority control
Corvidae
Magpies and treepies
Bird common names