Magpie
| Magpies | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Eurasian Magpie | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Corvidae |
| Genera | |
Magpies are intelligent birds of the corvidae family, including the black and white Eurasian Magpie, which is one of the few animal species known to be able to recognize itself in a mirror test.[1] Others include the Black-billed Magpie, Yellow-billed Magpie and Korean Magpie of the Pica genus, the Formosan Blue Magpie, Red-billed Blue Magpie and Gold-billed Magpie of the Urocissa and also the Common Green Magpie, Yellow-breasted Magpie, Short-tailed Magpie of the Cissa genus.
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Systematics and species [edit]
According to analysis,[2] magpies do not form the monophyletic group they are traditionally believed to be—a long tail has certainly elongated (or shortened) independently in multiple lineages of corvid birds. Among the traditional magpies, there appear to be two distinct lineages: one consists of Holarctic species with black/white colouration and is probably closely related to crows and Eurasian jays. The other contains several species from South to East Asia with vivid colouration which is predominantly green or blue. The Azure-winged Magpie is a species with a most peculiar distribution and unclear relationships. It may be the single survivor of a long extinct group of corvid genera.[citation needed]
Other research[3] has cast doubt on the taxonomy of the Pica magpies, since it appears that P. hudsonia and P. nuttalli may not be different species, whereas the Korean race of P. pica is genetically very distinct from the other Eurasian (as well as the North American) forms. Either the North American, Korean, and remaining Eurasian forms are accepted as three or four separate species, or there exists only a single species, Pica pica.
Holarctic (black-and-white) magpies
- Genus Pica
- Eurasian/European Magpie, Pica pica
- Black-billed Magpie, Pica hudsonia (may be conspecific with P. pica)
- Yellow-billed Magpie, Pica nuttalli (may be conspecific with P. (pica) hudsonia)
- Korean Magpie, Pica sericea (may be conspecific with P. pica)
Oriental (blue/green) magpies
- Genus Urocissa
- Formosan Blue Magpie Urocissa caerulea
- Red-billed Blue Magpie, Urocissa erythrorhyncha
- Gold-billed Magpie, Urocissa flavirostris
- White-winged Magpie, Urocissa whiteheadi
- Sri Lanka Blue Magpie, Urocissa ornata
- Genus Cissa
- Common Green Magpie, Cissa chinensis
- Yellow-breasted Magpie, Cissa hypoleuca
- Short-tailed Magpie, Cissa thalassina
Azure-winged Magpie
- Genus Cyanopica
- Azure-winged Magpie, Cyanopica cyana
Other "magpies" [edit]
- The Black Magpie, Platysmurus leucopterus, despite its name, is neither a magpie nor, as was long believed, a jay, but a treepie. Treepies are a distinct group of corvids externally similar to magpies.
- The Australian Magpie, Cracticus tibicen, is conspicuously piebald, with black and white plumage reminiscent of a European Magpie. It is a member of the family Artamidae, and not a corvid.
References [edit]
- Notes
- ^ Prior H. et al. (2008). "Mirror-Induced Behavior in the Magpie (Pica pica): Evidence of Self-Recognition". In De Waal, Frans. PLoS Biology (Public Library of Science) 6 (8): e202. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060202. PMC 2517622. PMID 18715117. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
- ^ Ericson et al. (2005)
- ^ Lee et al., 2003
- Bibliography
- Anonymous (2006): The Word Origin Calendar: Sat./Sun. March, 11–12, 2006. Accord Publishing.
- Ericson, Per G. P.; Jansén, Anna-Lee; Johansson, Ulf S. & Ekman, Jan (2005): Inter-generic relationships of the crows, jays, magpies and allied groups (Aves: Corvidae) based on nucleotide sequence data. Journal of Avian Biology 36: 222–234.
- Lee, Sang-im; Parr, Cynthia S.; Hwang, Youna; Mindell, David P. & Choe, Jae C. (2003): Phylogeny of magpies (genus Pica) inferred from mtDNA data. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 29: 250–257.
External links [edit]
- Magpie videos, photos and sounds on the Internet Bird Collection
