The other day I was at my partner's parent's house. There is a young magpie hanging about their place at the moment. It isn't afraid of people, and often goes up real close to you when you're out side, just to be cheeky.

That day I saw it and threw a few leaves towards it which it jumped up and caught! I thought that this was really cool, so after dropping my partner's daughter in the house, I stopped and started having a bit of a play with the magpie (which had been dubbed Maggie).

I was holding out sticks and Maggie was grabbing the end and playing tug-o'-war with me with the stick.

I managed to reach out and pat it and it rolled over onto it's back and kept biting the stick. It gave me a few nips from time to time and kept squawking constantly, but generally enjoyed the game.

My partner's daughter came out to see what I was doing. She had bare feet, and Maggie, spotting these lilly-white digits made a bee-line for them and started nipping her toes. She got a hell of a fright and ran screaming inside.

It was extremely funny, but I had to act the concerned adult and go see if she was alright.

Magpies can be good pets, but you have to teach them not to bite as they can become quite vicious when they get used to people.

He falls gracefully,
As if 'a wing,
And lands with the
Touch of a feather,
Upon his metal
Destination.

Australian magpies, Gymnorhina tibicen, are larger, sleeker and more predatory-looking than their European counterpart. They are about 45 cm long, standing tall on surprisingly long, black, athletic looking legs that enable a very arrogant looking strutting gait along the ground. The beak is long and knife-like, with a black tip that fades to pale grey towards the body. The eyes are dark red with a round black pupil. The body is shiny black, except for a large white cowl over the back of the neck and shoulders, and smaller white patches on the leading edge of the wing and the rump.

In the air they are agile, flying quietly with fairly rapid beating of the wings. Their most infamous aerial manauver is the breeding season dive-bombing of any passing biped, as has been mentioned by FishHead. They drop from 40 feet up at high speed, aiming their rather evil looking beak at the back of the intruder's head. I have vague memories of being told as a small child that wearing an overturned 1-litre plastic ice cream tub with some eyes painted on the back on your head would deter them.

Their call is highly distinctive, with a long, burbling, liquid carol used to advertise their territorial interests, one of the most attractive bird calls of the Australian bush. Fledgling magpies are slightly less pleasurable to the ear. They follow their parents for several months after leaving the nest, slightly thinner and greyer than the adults. The parents will stay close together and forage for food while the baby hops along awkwardly behind, making a constant nagging high pitched nasal-sounding call eerily reminiscent of the noises made by irritable whining human toddlers. An interesting illustration of convergent evolution in action.

They're extremely common throughout much of the country, along the east coast to the south but tending further inland further north, and extending all the way into Westen Australia. Far northern and western birds have slightly different plumage to the eastern variety described here, but are the same species. They breed in October and November, laying one to six eggs in a nest in a high tree lined with feathers. The offspring mature extremely slowly, taking years to reach sexual maturity.

Mag"pie (?), n. [OE. & Prov. E. magot pie, maggoty pie, fr. Mag, Maggot, equiv. to Margaret, and fr. F. Marquerite, and common name of the magpie. Marguerite is fr. L. margarita pearl, Gr. , prob. of Eastern origin. See Pie magpie, and cf. the analogous names Tomtit, and Jackdaw.] Zool.

Any one of numerous species of the genus Pica and related genera, allied to the jays, but having a long graduated tail.

⇒ The common European magpie (Pica pica, or P. caudata) is a black and white noisy and mischievous bird. It can be taught to speak. The American magpie (P. Hudsonica) is very similar. The yellow-belled magpie (P. Nuttalli) inhabits California. The blue magpie (Cyanopolius Cooki) inhabits Spain. Other allied species are found in Asia. The Tasmanian and Australian magpies are crow shrikes, as the white magpie (Gymnorhina organicum), the black magpie (Strepera fuliginosa), and the Australian magpie (Cracticus picatus).

Magpie lark Zool., a common Australian bird (Grallina picata), conspicuously marked with black and white; -- called also little magpie. -- Magpie moth Zool., a black and white European geometrid moth (Abraxas grossulariata); the harlequin moth. Its larva feeds on currant and gooseberry bushes.

 

© Webster 1913.