Eurasian Magpie
The Eurasian magpie (Pica pica) is one of the most intelligent birds on Earth and a well known member of the crow family. Its plumage is a bold mix of black and white, with wings and a long tail that shimmer in blue, green and purple when the light catches them. It lives across a vast range from Portugal and Ireland to the Pacific coast of Asia, in farmland, woodland edges, parks and gardens, and it is often one of the most familiar birds in towns. Magpies eat almost anything: insects, seeds, berries, small animals, eggs and carrion, and they hide spare food and remember where they put it. In a famous 2008 experiment, two of five magpies seemed to recognize their own reflection in a mirror, although a larger study in 2020 could not repeat the result. Pairs build big domed nests of sticks with a thorny roof. Wild magpies usually live about five years, but the record is over 21 years.
Where does the Eurasian magpie live?
Few birds match the Eurasian magpie's range. It stretches from Portugal, Spain and Ireland in the west all the way to the Pacific coast of Korea in the east, covering most of Europe, Turkey, the Caucasus, Iran, Central Asia, Russia, Mongolia and much of China, and reaching south to the Himalayas, northern Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Taiwan. In Japan it lives only around Saga in Kyushu, where it was introduced from Korea centuries ago. Within this enormous territory, magpies settle wherever open ground meets scattered trees or shrubs. They are especially at home along woodland edges, hedgerows, farmland, riverbanks, and in parks and gardens within towns and cities. They tend to avoid dense forest interiors and high mountain terrain above the treeline. Their ability to thrive alongside humans has actually helped them expand into suburban and urban areas across much of their range, making them one of the most familiar wild birds in European towns. Ireland was only colonized in the late 17th century, when magpies first appeared in County Wexford.
What do magpies eat?
Magpies will eat almost anything edible they come across. Their diet shifts with the seasons: invertebrates such as beetles, caterpillars, and earthworms make up a large share of what they eat in spring and summer, while berries, seeds, and plant matter become more important as autumn arrives. They also take carrion, raid the nests of other birds for eggs and chicks, and occasionally catch small mammals such as voles. One particularly useful habit is food caching. Magpies hide surplus food under leaves or in the soil and return to retrieve it later, relying on precise spatial memory to find what they stored. Studies have shown they can also detect when another individual is watching and will return to move their cache to a safer spot.
How smart are magpies? Intelligence and the mirror test
Among birds, the Eurasian magpie stands out for its mental abilities. In 2008, researchers at Goethe University Frankfurt reported that two of five magpies they tested seemed to recognize their own reflection, trying to remove a colored mark they could only see in a mirror, a test that until then had been passed mainly by great apes, dolphins and elephants. The result made magpies famous, but it has been debated: in 2020, a team from the University of Granada repeated the experiment with more birds and found no clear evidence of self recognition, so the question is still open. They are also skilled problem solvers, capable of using tools in some contexts and learning from watching others. Socially, they live in loose groups outside the breeding season, and pairs that bond tend to stay together across multiple years. Magpies are noisy and alert, producing a rapid chattering call that serves as an alarm. They pay close attention to the behavior of other species, often following potential predators through their territory to mob them and drive them away.
Breeding
Eurasian magpies pair up early in the year and begin nest construction well before laying. Their nests are among the most substantial of any European bird: large domed structures made from sticks, with a mud cup inside lined with fine roots and grass, and a protective roof of thorny branches that helps guard the eggs from predators. Nests are typically built high in tall trees or dense shrubs. The female usually lays five or six eggs, and incubation lasts around 20 days, carried out by the female while the male brings food. Once the eggs hatch, both parents share the work of feeding the chicks. The young leave the nest at around 26 to 31 days old but continue to receive some care from the adults for several weeks after.
Eurasian magpie and other magpies
The black and white magpies of the genus Pica are a small group, and recent studies have shown that the Eurasian magpie may actually be several species. Many bird lists now treat the magpies of eastern China, Korea, Taiwan and Southeast Asia as a separate species, the Oriental magpie, and the black rumped magpie of the Himalayas, in Bhutan and nearby, as another. The IUCN still counts them all as Eurasian magpies, which is why its map stretches to Korea and Vietnam. North Africa has its own Maghreb magpie, with a patch of blue bare skin behind the eye, and the mountains of southwestern Saudi Arabia hold the rare Asir magpie. In North America live the black billed magpie, very similar to the Eurasian bird, and the yellow billed magpie of California. All of them belong to the crow family, Corvidae, together with crows, ravens, jays and jackdaws. Colorful Asian birds called magpies, such as the blue magpies of the Himalayas, belong to other genera, and the Australian magpie is not a corvid at all.
Conservation
With a global population in the tens of millions, around 610,000 territories in the United Kingdom alone, and a range spanning two continents, the Eurasian magpie is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. Its numbers are broadly stable, and in many areas the species has benefited from the spread of suburban environments: in the UK the population roughly doubled between 1967 and the late 1980s before leveling off. That said, magpies do face localized pressures. In parts of the United Kingdom and other European countries, gamekeepers and farmers have historically controlled magpie numbers, citing predation of songbird nests. Scientific reviews have not found strong evidence that magpie activity causes measurable declines in songbird populations at a wider scale. Persecution, shooting, and trapping continue in some rural areas, but these do not threaten the species overall. Habitat loss remains a concern in parts of Central Asia where agricultural and land use change is ongoing.
Where it is found
The Eurasian Magpie can be found in places such as:
