Wild Bird Wednesday 691 - Australian Magpie

The Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) is a very familiar black and white bird with an amazing singing ability: you can hear a compilation of their vocalisations here.

You will not be surprised to hear that it is not really a magpie in the more widely accepted meaning go the word.  Magpies are actually crows, but Australian Magpies are more closely related to butcherbirds than crows.

It was a common habit in the colonial period to call any Australian bird that was black and white a 'magpie' of some kind - and as a result we have Australian Magpies, Magpie Geese and Magpie Larks - and none of these are Magpies in the conventional sense.

Australian Magpie are also highly territorial, and will aggressively swoop and even peck people or other animals they perceive as a threat.  It also seems that Australian Magpies will single out individual people for aggressive behaviour - in other words they can remember who they 'hate' the most and seem to reserve much of their anger for that person.  (To be honest, it's a behaviour I can empathise with!)

Strangely, Australian Magpie can also become very tame, and will feed very close to people they trust.  A number of years ago we had a pair that nested in the trees behind our house.  In the mornings they would come and tap on our back door and window asking for some breakfast! I was more than pleased to oblige.

I found these two birds near my house, and they were feeding around the mossy base of a street tree.  They seemed to be finding a good number of small invertebrates to eat.

They are an utterly iconic Australian bird.

As ever to join in with WBW click on the link below.  Cheers and I hope all is well.  SM

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter