Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Magpie, magpie, I go by thee!" and to spit on the ground three times. [8] On occasion, jackdaws, crows and other Corvidae are associated with the rhyme, particularly in America where magpies are less common. [9] In eastern India, the erstwhile British colonial bastion, the common myna is the bird of association. [10]
The adult Australian magpie is a fairly robust bird ranging from 37 to 43 cm (14.5 to 17 in) in length, with black and white plumage, gold brown eyes and a solid wedge-shaped bluish-white and black bill. The male and female are similar in appearance, but can be distinguished by differences in back markings.
A still from "The Talking Magpies". This short featured prototypes of the duo. The Talking Magpies, released January 4, 1946, was the first Terrytoons cartoon to feature a pair of wisecracking magpies. This was a husband-and-wife pair, not the pair of identical birds that they would become.
Male (left) and female (right) magpies of Tasmania. The Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) is a medium-sized black and white passerine bird native to Australia and southern New Guinea. Three subspecies, including both black-backed and white-backed magpies, were introduced to New Zealand from the 1860s to control pests in pastures. They are ...
The various groups of Western Australia offer two versions of the same story about the Crow and the Magpie. The crow and the magpie are brothers, [5] both born with pure white feathers. [6] Both were vain and would argue as to which was the most beautiful. Perched in a tree, they began to argue and then fought.
Other old common names include grey crow-shrike, leaden crow-shrike, mountain magpie, black-winged currawong (in western Victoria), clinking currawong (in Tasmania), and squeaker (in Western Australia). [4] The black-winged currawong was known to the Ramindjeri people of Encounter Bay as wati-eri, [5] the word meaning "to sneak" or "to track".
The black-billed magpie builds domed nests which are made up of twigs and are located near the top of trees, usually housing six to seven eggs. Incubation, by the female only, starts when the clutch is complete, and lasts 16–21 days. The nestling period is three to four weeks. Black-billed magpies in the wild have a lifespan of six to seven ...
The family contains a single species, the magpie goose. It was an early and distinctive offshoot of the anseriform family tree, diverging after the screamers and before all other ducks, geese and swans, sometime in the late Cretaceous. The single species is found across Australia.