by Juliet Bodycomb
In this new series, What Bird is That? we explore the many birds that call Your Adelaide Park Lands home.
Birds, as you might know, are in the class, Aves – a group of warm-blooded vertebrates characterised by feathers, hollow bones, and toothless beaked jaws, among other things.
We’re kicking off this series with none other than the iconic Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen, also sometimes Cracticus tibicen), a black-and-white bird with eyes of chestnut brown.
As you can see below, the mantle, upper tail and nape are white in males, and grey in females – a classic example of sexual dimorphism in birds.
Photo: The Magpie Whisperer.
Juvenile birds also have a grey neck and mantle, which fades as they get older. The juvenile magpie’s plumage is also distinguished by a brown-grey breast, which turns to black with maturity.
Australian Magpies are a highly successful species, found all over Australia. Their preferred habitat is a combination of trees and adjacent open areas. The only places you won’t find them are extremely dense forests and arid deserts.
Magpies are common and conspicuous birds that live in groups of up to 24 members, but usually between two and twelve.
Sometimes called the “police of the bush”, they will rigorously defend their territory and everything inside, as it is the latter on which they depend for food, roosting and nesting.
Australian Magpie in Blue Gum Park (Park 20). Photo: abcdefgewing (iNaturalist).
Australian Magpies walk along the ground in search of insects and their larvae but are not averse to taking handouts from humans. Though often quite tame, the birds can become more aggressive during peak breeding season, from August to November.
Remember, magpies only swoop to protect their nestlings, which are extremely vulnerable in their first months of life!
Australian Magpie in the Adelaide Botanic Garden (Park 11). Photo: James Photography (iNaturalist).
During breeding season, females lay three to five eggs, which are blue or green with brown blotches. Eggs are incubated for 20 days in nests, which lie up to 15m off the ground.
Within four weeks, chicks are ready to leave the nest, and after approximately two years, juveniles are forced to leave the group and seek their own territory.
Australian Magpie eggs. Photo: William D. Bachman/Science Photo Library.
You can recognise magpies by their diverse and complex calls, including their characteristic warbling. A stylised version of the magpie is South Australia’s emblem: the so-called ‘piping shrike’.
These vocalisations are used in many situations, such as to convey distress, fear, anger, and for contacting or informing others.
The latter are known as “referential signals” – informing calls that hold meaning for other magpies. Essentially, the equivalent of saying “dinner’s ready” or “watch out for the eagle!”.
Two Australian Magpies vocalising. Photo: Birds As Poetry.
There are many benefits to living in large social groups. Animals living in larger groups often demonstrate increased capacity for cooperative behaviour and problem-solving.
In 2022, researchers attached tracking devices to magpies for a study and found that the birds helped each other remove them.
Further studies will reveal whether these ‘rescue’ behaviours are demonstrations of altruism – when there is a benefit to the recipient but a cost to the actor, an apparent challenge to the popular Darwinian notion ‘survival of the fittest’.
Main photo of magpie (top) photographed by Chris Gascoigne in Red Gum Park / Karrawirra (Park 12).
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Juliet Bodycomb is a biodiversity and conservation student at Flinders University and science writer for the Adelaide Park Lands Association and the Biological Society of South Australia.
She has an academic background in anthropology and is the recipient of the Australian Government's prestigious New Colombo Plan 2024 Scholarship, which will see her moving to Fiji to continue her studies in conservation biology and intern with multiple environmental organisations.
In her free time, Juliet enjoys hiking, reading, writing, and adventuring with her two border collies.
