Pica pica
A bold black-and-white bird with a shimmering tail.
Size: 44-46 cm | Habitat: Park & Woodland-Edge Birds | Season: All year
Unmistakable, the magpie has bold black-and-white plumage and a long, wedge-shaped tail that flashes iridescent green and purple in sunlight. Roughly half its length is tail alone.
Black-and-white plumage · long, glossy green-purple tail · white belly and shoulder patches · stout black bill
Magpies are intelligent, adaptable, and often seen in small, noisy groups. They eat almost anything, from insects and eggs to scraps, and are known for their harsh, chattering call.
Magpies are one of the few animals known to recognise themselves in a mirror, a sign of unusually high intelligence.
The Magpie (Pica pica) is unmistakable, with bold black-and-white plumage and a long, wedge-shaped tail that flashes iridescent green and purple in direct sunlight, making up roughly half of its total body length. Its harsh, chattering call and confident, strutting walk make it one of the most conspicuous birds in any park or garden.
Magpies are highly intelligent members of the crow family, eating an opportunistic diet of insects, eggs, small animals, and scraps, and are one of very few non-mammal species shown to recognise themselves in a mirror, a marker of unusually advanced self-awareness. They often live in small, loosely organised social groups outside the breeding season.
Understanding the magpie reveals how intelligence, opportunism, and adaptability allow a bird to thrive in almost any landscape shaped by people, from city parks to farmland hedgerows.
🟢 Conservation status: Green (UK Birds of Conservation Concern 5)
Green-listed, with a stable UK population that grew significantly through the 20th century before levelling off. Magpies are sometimes unfairly blamed for songbird declines; research consistently shows their impact on overall songbird populations is minimal compared with habitat loss and other pressures.