Talk:European Magpie

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Photographs[edit]

Can anyone provide photographs of european magpies? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Snowmanradio (talk • contribs) December 23, 2005 at 13:20.

Greeting a Lone Magpie[edit]

Along with "wheres you wife" I have always been told to greet them "Moring General". Is this just my odd family or is used by others? Jim 11:43, 28 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It's not just you Jim. My family also has this tradition, but we call them "Black and White Gentlemen" and Greet them with "Morning Sir/s" or "Afternoon Sir/s" generally in a thick Westcountry accent. As far as I know this tradition would either be from the Westcountry or perhaps from Suffolk, where my Father's family came from originally. Good to know we aren't the only people who greet Magpies! Heliotic 14:02, 14/06/07

Where I am from (Wales) we say Hello Mr Magpie. Hows your wife? My wife who is from Dorset says Morning Captain. Pryderi (talk) 18:31, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Lifespan?[edit]

There doesn't seem to be any information in the article regarding the bird's typical lifespan - which is what I visited the article to find out. Unlike eg. the article on the common raven. 81.149.243.212 (talk) 18:50, 24 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Name[edit]

Is European magpie the right name for this article? This bird is found throughout Europe and Asia, into North Africa and North America, although by some accounts it recently and suddenly disappeared from North America when the AOU decided to change a name. A quick search on Google shows roughly 4 times as many hits for "Eurasian magpie" as for "European magpie", and many of the approximately 9600 results for "European magpie" come from Wikipedia or people quoting Wikipedia. Most people refer to it simply as Magpie. Eurasian Magpie is less Eurocentric, and Common Magpie would be quite accurate as well. EthanL (talk) 06:49, 27 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The AOU name change seems to be a result of actual biological evidence. The explanation of their change

Notes.—Formerly considered a subspecies of Old

World Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) [Eurasian Magpie],

but separated on the basis of differences summarized

by Birkhead (1991) and Enggist-Dublin and

Birkhead (1992). Vocal and behavioral data suggest

that P. hudsonia is more closely related to P. nuttalli

than to P. pica. All taxa in Pica were considered conspecific

by Phillips (1986).

I've got no real objection to "Eurasian Magpie". I don't like "Magpie" even if that's in common use, simply because there's a risk of confusing people in North America who have other species of Pica. Smptq (talk) 22:54, 27 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Language[edit]

I was reading through the article, and was amazed at the flowery language. Section "ecology and behaviour" reads like some sort of poem!! Thoughts? Also i would have thought statements such as "the fondness of all its family for bright objects is well known" should probably be referenced, or left out (at least re-worded). Jhoveson (talk) 12:35, 14 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

i'm sure there are countless references to a magpie's affintiy for shiny objects (crows too) Most of the referenced stories refer to this trait, even though they arent' scientific journals. As for re-wording: sounds better like it is now, than to say "likes shiny objects" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 167.7.17.3 (talk) 15:22, 1 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Mirror Test[edit]

Had been reading about the various other animals in the (small) group of animals to pass the mirror test. That is, recognizing oneself in a mirror. I don't have any specific sources to cite at the moment, so I thought I should suggest that someone qualified edits in a bit about the magpie's self recognition ability. Absentia (talk) 20:58, 29 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Folklore[edit]

Is it worth noting that in common with other corvids the magpie has a sinister collective noun - a tiding (unkindness of ravens, murder of crows etc). Not sure if it's noteworthy or not, so not put in article. 80.26.83.120 (talk) 18:31, 10 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If you can find a cite, then why not? --Chuunen Baka (talk) 19:00, 10 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Magpie Rhyme[edit]

Was it version A or the Irish variant that appeared in the Counting Crows song? The language is unclear. If it was the Irish version, just put 'the Irish version' in removing the unclear pronoun 'this' in the sentence. Kathybramley (talk) 10:40, 2 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]