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Magpie

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Birds

                  iMagpie
   European Magpie
   European Magpie
         Scientific classification

   Kingdom: Animalia
   Phylum:  Chordata
   Class:   Aves
   Order:   Passeriformes
   Family:  Corvidae

                                   Genera

     * Pica
     * Urocissa
     * Cissa
     * Cyanopica

   The magpies are medium to large, often colorful and noisy passerine
   birds of the crow family, Corvidae. The names ' jay' and 'magpie' are
   to a certain extent interchangeable, and do not accurately reflect the
   evolutionary relationship between these birds. For example, the
   Eurasian Magpie seems more closely related to the Eurasian Jay than to
   the Oriental Blue and Green Magpies, whereas the Blue Jay is not
   closely related to either.

   In Europe, "Magpie" is often used as a synonym for the European Magpie,
   as there are no other magpies in Europe outside Iberia.

Name

   The prefix "mag-" is short for "Margaret." Known for its noisy
   chattering, the European Magpie may have acquired its name as an
   allusion to nagging. It could have also been named after "Maggot"
   because it stole eggs and nestlings from other birds. "Pie" is the
   original name of the bird, from the Latin pica.

Systematics and species

   According to Ericson et al. (2005), magpies do not form the
   monophyletic group they are traditionally believed to be; a long tail
   has certainly evolved (or shortened) independently in multiple lineages
   of corvid birds. Among the traditional magpies, there appear to be 2
   evolutionary lineages: One consists of Holarctic species with
   black/white coloration and is probably closely related to crows and
   Eurasian jays. The other contains several species from South to East
   Asia with vivid coloration 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.

   Other recent research (Lee et al., 2003) 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 (and even the North
   American) forms. Either the North American, Korean, and remaining
   Eurasian forms are accepted as 3 or 4 separate species, or there exists
   only a single species, Pica pica.

   Holarctic (black-and-white) magpies
     * Genus Pica
          + European Magpie, Pica pica
          + American Black-billed Magpie, Pica hudsonia (may be
            conspecific with P. pica)
          + Yellow-billed Magpie, Pica nuttalli (may be conspecific with
            P. pica/P. hudsonica)
          + 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
          + Green Magpie, Cissa chinensis
          + Yellow-breasted Magpie, Cissa hypoleuca
          + Short-tailed Magpie, Cissa thalassina

   Azure-winged Magpie
     * Genus Cyanopica
          + Azure-winged Magpie, Cyanopica cyana

   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 Gymnorhina tibicen is conspicuously piebald black
   and white feathers reminding of an European Magpie, but it is not
   corvid at all. The black and white Magpie moth is also named for its
   appearance.

Other

   In Old English, the European Magpie is sometimes known as a
   "Chatterpie".

   In general, the magpie is a symbol of happiness in Chinese culture.

Sporting teams based on the Magpie

     * Western Suburbs Magpies an Australian Rugby League club
     * Souths-Logan Magpies an Australian Rugby League club
     * Collingwood Magpies an Australian Rules Football club
     * Newcastle United FC an English Football club

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magpie"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
