Eurasian magpie

"Pica pica" redirects here. Not to be confused with Pika pika (disambiguation).

Eurasian magpie
Temporal range: Middle Pleistocene – Recent
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Nominate subspecies in Kaliningrad, Russia
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Corvidae
Genus: Pica
Species:
P. pica
Binomial name
Pica pica
Subspecies

See text

Global range of the Eurasian magpie and other Afro-Eurasian Pica species.

Light blue: Pica pica melanotos
Light green: Pica pica pica
Dark green: Pica pica fennorum
Yellow: Pica pica bactriana
Magenta: Pica pica leucoptera
Dark blue: Pica pica camtschatica

Now treated as separate species:
Orange: Maghreb magpie (Pica mauritanica)
Dark grey: Asir magpie (Pica asirensis)
Light red: Black-rumped magpie (Pica bottanensis)
Dark red: Oriental magpie (Pica serica)

Synonyms

Corvus pica Linnaeus, 1758

The Eurasian magpie or common magpie (Pica pica) is a resident breeding bird throughout the northern part of the Eurasian continent. It is one of several birds in the crow family (corvids) designated magpies, and belongs to the Holarctic radiation of "monochrome" magpies. In Europe, "magpie" is used by English speakers as a synonym for the Eurasian magpie: the only other magpie in Europe is the Iberian magpie (Cyanopica cooki), which is limited to the Iberian Peninsula. Despite having a shared name and similar colouration, it is not closely related to the Australian Magpie.

The Eurasian magpie is one of the most intelligent birds, and it is believed to be one of the most intelligent of all non-human animals.[2] The expansion of its nidopallium is approximately the same in its relative size as the brain of chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and humans.[3] It is the only bird known to pass the mirror test, along with very few other non-avian species.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference iucn was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Prior H. et al. 2008 e202 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Lesley J. Rogers page 9 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).