Thread by @corvidresearch

Last week someone requested a Sunday, 10-things-you-should-know thread about magpies. I am of course happy to oblige. Enjoy!

1. When many people think of magpies they think of an iridescent black and white bird, but actually they come in all sorts of fabulous colors. Unlike crows and raven which all belong in the Corvus genus, magpies are found in several different genera, hence their diversity.

For example there’s the Bornean green magpie, the Ceylon magpie and the Taiwan magpie (📸’s David Irving). Although they are in different genera, they are all in the corvidae family, making them corvids just like crows ravens and jays.

You can find more gorgeous corvids you might not have ever heard of before here: corvidresearch.blog/2016/09/24/15-…

2. One magpie that’s not a corvid though? The Australian magpie! These birds are in the butcherbird family. The best way you can tell they’re not corvids is because they lack the distinctive nasal feathers. (Magpie 📸: JJ Harrison)

3. Black-billed and common magpies build the most extra nests of any corvid. They can be huge domed structures with two different entrances and walls up to 3in thick! They can take almost 2 months to construct. Most birds OTOH can bang out a nest in 1-2 weeks.

4. The notion that magpies like shiny things is probably bologna. Ok, ok before you @ me with all your stories about them lifting shiny stuff, it’s not that they don’t do that at all, it’s just that there’s no evidence they actually do it more with shiny vs. non. shiny objects.

In fact one study found that rather than being psyched when presented shiny stuff along with food, both wild and captive common magpies became more nervous than when food was presented alone. ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bit…

So my advice is to not be entirely dismissive of the whole thing, but don’t take it as fact either. You can read more of my take on this subject here: corvidresearch.blog/2015/12/04/cro…

5. Speaking of shiny, the blues and greens color in a magpie’s feathers comes from structural color, as opposed to pigment. Basically the light is scattered and then perceived in such a way that it looks like particular colors. Same is true for crows and ravens.

6. Common magpies are the only corvid that have passed the mirror test of self recognition. Yup ravens, New Caledonian crows, American crows...all fail. BUT (cue high pitched voice)...did magpies really pass? Reeealy?

Ok here’s the deal. In the original study researchers put either a small black or colored sticker on the bird with the idea being that a black sticker would blend in and go unnoticed but a colored one would stand out (birds have full color vision and then some).

When placed in front of a mirror, birds with black stickers ignored them, but birds with colored stickers went to town trying to remove them. Aka self-directed behavior aka you in a bathroom after eating an everything bagel. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/ar…

Here’s the rub though: only TWO birds actually showed these self directed behaviors. And a follow up study on jackdaws showed that birds eventually tried to remove stickers whether they had a mirror or not. journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…

So do they really pass the mirror test? I’m going to say we don’t yet know. But what that actually tells us about their cognition and behavior is a whole other ball of wax. You can read more here: corvidresearch.blog/2017/11/12/mir…

7. Like some crows, ravens, and jays, black-billed magpies take a keen interest in their dead and seem to respond in a similar way, meaning they alarm call and will sometimes investigate and touch bodies.

More study is desperately needed to understand the range and motivations behind their full suite of behaviors though. In crows, my work showed this behavior is at least partly motivated by danger learning and avoidance. I am ~dying~ for the chance to study magpies.

8. Ok buckle in for this next one because it’s something. Magpies are the victims of a mafia shakedown and risk their kids getting killed if they don’t cooperate.

So, great-spotted cuckoos are nest parasites which means they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, & said host raises their offspring. This is a raw deal for the host for lots of reasons, so there should be extreme selection pressure on hosts to ID and remove these eggs.

Common magpies seem to be able to ID these eggs and yet don’t seem to always remove them. Why??? Because if they do the cuckoo parents will come back and destroy their nests! So yeah, I, uh, wasn’t kidding. #NatureIsMetal onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.111…

9. Black-billed magpies are super chill. Unlike ravens and crows that will attack and kill each other over territory disputes, such fights are rare among magpies and almost never lethal.

10. Like other corvids, magpies are part of team #PullAllTheTails. In some cases they will work cooperatively so that one bird pulls the victim’s tail, allowing the other birds to swoop in and steal food while the victim chases the teasing bird.

https://twitter.com/sheppeywildlife/status/474904670134349824?s=21

And let’s round things out with a quick bonus fact: common magpies have the best scientific name of any bird, period: Pica Pica.

I hope you learned some new things this week! Follow for more corvid content and keep sending your requests and questions. Your...requestions 🤓