Magpie | Facts & Information

Origin

Having a harsh and strident voice, the name of this bird is also attributed – as a nickname – to a person who speaks long and loud (or aimlessly).

Although they originally lived only in forests, the cutting down of trees and the development of settlements have caused Magpies to move closer to human settlements, now being more common in villages and even in cities.

Old people in the countryside say that Magpies Herald drought when they peck grains of corn and that they announce a storm – when they gather in flocks. Also about the Magpie there is a legend according to which this bird refused to climb into Noah's Ark, preferring to stay in its nest for the duration of the flood.

Magpie Food

On the other hand, Magpies terrify the poultry farmers, through whose ograds they often take the bait, stealing the eggs, but especially the chickens, turkeys or ducks.

It is a kind of attack to which Magpies resort more instinctively, in memory of the times when they hunted in the centuries-old forests, but now they are content to feed on seeds or the bodies of dead animals. But as every nose has its nose, Magpies are also hunted by other birds of prey, such as hawks and Hawks.

Features Magpie

An oddity of the bird world is the lark-Magpie (scientifically called Grallina cyanoleuca), about which – even if it was baptized with the names of both flies – it can be said that it is neither a lark nor a magpie.

It lives in Australia, in a wide diversity of habitats (even in cities), however, preferring to stay near a water, where it gets its food. Lark-Magpie has long legs (like most birds that live near water) and black and white plumage.

Pairs of larks – Magpies often sing in duet, waiting – in order-for the turn of each voice to come. This bird's Nest is built of mud and grass, usually placed on a branch above the water.

Also on the continent of kangaroos, at the Antipodes, lives the Australian magpie, native to Australia and New Guinea, but also introduced to New Zealand. It is a bird larger than the lark-Magpie (40 centimeters long, compared to only 30) and has a voice that made it famous through its melodious songs.

Australian magpies feed on insects and other small animals on the ground and nest in groups of up to six birds, led by a dominant male. Each group has its own territory, which it defends from other Magpies who dare to encroach on it.

A bird with an extremely strange geographical spread is the blue-winged Magpie (black with Gray on the rest of the body). Called Cyanopica cyana by scientists, the blue-winged Magpie lives mainly in China and neighboring areas of the Far East, but can also be found in Spain or Portugal.

The only explanation that ornithologists have been able to find for this existence in such remote places is that European specimens were brought by chance to the Old continent by sailors returning from China centuries ago.

Although it is not entirely excluded that these Magpies were kept in captivity as pet birds, it is more likely that they have nested on the ships of the Spanish and Portuguese seafarers, where they found favorable conditions and abundant food. And so, after a long journey, they reached the Iberian Peninsula.

Breeding Magpie

Magpies are sociable birds, living in not very large groups, but quite noisy (especially in the first weeks of the year) – these collective sounds being the signal for the start of the mating period.

Throughout the spring, the Magpie pairs divide and then establish their territories so that the fighting stops and they can take care of nest building, laying eggs and caring for the chicks. Both partners take part in the construction of a roomy nest: the male searches and brings the materials (twigs, stems of plants and grass), and the female arranges them so that the shelter is stable, safe and comfortable.

In April – May, the female lays between five and seven eggs, which she then hatches for a maximum of 18 days. After hatching, the chicks do not leave the nest for another 22 to 27 days, during which time they are fed directly by their parents.

Then, up to eight weeks, the chicks continue to stay in the company of adult Magpies, only in the third month of life leaving the nest on their own wings. Even so, without being dependent on their parents, the new generations of young Magpies continue to live with their family in the autumn and winter of their first year of life.