OK, I know it’s a bit controversial, since they snatch the eggs of smaller birds, but I really do like magpies. Some things just aren’t all black and white, you might say.
They are beautiful, big and comparatively easy to photograph, surprisingly colourful and very entertaining.
Until about six weeks ago, I used to throw away the skin of scrambled egg that sticks to the surface of my “non-stick” pan. But now I have found it is one of the magpies’ favourites!
Cold water loosens the egg, which I then scrape off with my fingernails and place in a pile, where I can see it from the kitchen window.
Usually the magpies are there within a minute or two to wolf it down, but of course the day I decided to have my camera ready I had to wait 10 minutes. And then a couple of the magpies came, had a bit of a fight and the egg was all gone in no time at all. And I had only fired off about five shots with my camera.
Magpies are reputed to be very clever birds and certainly they have shown many skills with their food lately. They fill their beaks with dried mealworms from the bird table and dunk them in the birdbath before fishing them out again to eat. Mmmm, juicy!

A magpie with a beak full of raisins and dried mealworms from the bird table - a bit blurred but note the lovely rainbow-black feathers...
I also spotted one the other day with a fat pellet, burying it under the gravel and piling on pebbles to make sure it was good and covered.

I was particularly pleased with this shot of a magpie taking off (unexpectedly), captured in March last year...
For the record, the British magpie species has the Latin name Pica pica, simply a repetition of the name the Romans themselves used for the bird, with which they were clearly very familiar. The magpie is very ancient, 17-million-year-old fossils of an ancestral version, Miopica, having been found in the Ukraine.
One thing I didn’t realise is that pica also means “a craving for unsuitable food” (thank you to my old Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary)…
I did already know, from my hot-metal days in newspapers, that pica is a type-size of 12 points (a sixth of an inch). But I didn’t know where it came from. The dictionary says it comes from its use in printing the pie, and here’s the definition of that:
pie, pye, noun, a book of rules for determining the Church office for the day. —by cock and pie (Shakespeare), a minced oath, apparently from “by God and the pie” (from the Late Latin pica, possibly the same as Latin pica, magpie, from the black and white appearance of the page).
The English name for the magpie has two elements. The second part, pie , in this context means a mixture, as in the pie we eat or “printer’s pie”, a jumble of metal type. The word pied originally meant a mixture of colours and only later narrowed to mean just black and white.
But from all the above I’m starting to think which word came first, the “pie” or the pica?
Meanwhile the first part of the name, “mag”, is a shortened form of Margaret and in the late 18th century a “mag” or “meg” was someone who chattered a lot. The magpie itself is also called a chatterpie or chatternag in some areas.
Here’s the RSPB page for the magpie, on which you can listen to its loud, distinctive rattling call.
The magpie is a member of the big Corvid family, which includes crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies, choughs and nutcrackers. So many of them appear to be clever birds and some have been domesticated. I would love to have a pet magpie!

Corvid cousins - magpie, top, and carrion crow (Corvus corone), to compare the size - the crow is too big to land on the bird table...
A person referred to as a “magpie” is a hoarder or collector, although magpies are often thought of more as thieves than collectors, notably in the little opera La Gazza Ladra by Gioachino Rossini. In this a servant girl, Ninetta, is accused of stealing a silver spoon that is eventually found in a magpie’s nest, just in time to save her from execution. Sorry to give away the ending!
And finally…
There was a children’s teatime TV programme in Britain in the 1970s called Magpie. As its theme tune it used this sanitised version of an old nursery rhyme that associates luck (good and bad) with the number of magpies you see…
One for sorrow
Two for joy
Three for a girl
Four for a boy
Five for silver
Six for gold
Seven for a secret never to be told
Eight’s a wish and
Nine a kiss
Ten is a bird you must not miss…
Here’s one version of the original rhyme:
One for sorrow,
Two for luck (or mirth),
Three for a wedding,
Four for death (or birth),
Five for silver,
Six for gold;
Seven for a secret,
Not to be told;
Eight for Heaven,
Nine for Hell
And ten for the devil’s own sel’
I know many people who, when seeing a single magpie, feel they have to say “Hello Mr Magpie, where’s your lady friend?” to avoid ill fortune. I used to do it myself.
Magpies may be considered a bird of bad omen, and noisy bullies, but I love them and I will keep egging them on…
“Some things just aren’t all black and white, you might say.” That made me chuckle!
We aim to please 🙂
What a beautiful article and very informative..shows the Magpie in a whole new light. We have big black Vultures here in Florida, ulgiest bird in the world but the work they do at keeping roads clean from carcasses of dead animals is astounding. I applaud and respect them, and being they have been around for years, suggests they must find beauty in each other ( hahha). I’ll make a wager the Magpies give you many hours of pleasure with their antics…thanks for sharing, enjoyed it immensely..
Thanks as always for your kind comments.
I have a soft spot for vultures myself! As you suggest, all creatures have their place in life’s rich tapestry…
Best wishes 🙂
Magpies are among my favourite birds. If you went to some tropical country and saw one for the first time, you’d think “What an amazing bird, look at those colours, and the diamond shaped tail, so unlike our dull British birds”.
In 2008, I went on Radio Wales to defend magpies from strident criticism from presenter Oliver Hides. I still have the sound file but I can’t see a way to attach it here.
If you like Magpies and other corvids (crows) the book ‘Corvus’ by Ester Woolson is a must. It tells the story of the birds with which she has shared her home (quite literally). Apart from a short technical section on feathers, it’s highly readable and interesting. .
I’ve also enjoyed ‘Crow Country’ by Mark Cocker which, despite its name, is about Rooks in general, but mainly in East Anglia.
Thank you for all that. I’m pleased I’m not alone in liking corvids. I’m very impressed you went on radio to defend magpies!
You are right about how amazing the magpie looks – that tail sometimes reminds me (a little bit) of the BBC’s Planet Dinosaur microraptor…
One corvid I have been missing lately is the jay – they used to be so common in my garden but I haven’t seen one for a year or two, now. Like the magpie, the jay’s colouring is amazing…
A childhood cat of mine had to be rescued from two mobbing mapgpies who trapped it in a tree – maybe approaching their nest.
I’m on the side of the magpies in that one 🙂
Following a decline in 1980s, Jay populations in Wales and UK are stable or somewhat increasing, see http://www.bto.org/birdtrends2008/wcrjay.shtml I see them often in suitable habitat – for example Cardiff’s Bute Park. I think when population was at peak, more pairs were pushed into slightly less suitable habitat and were more seen in gardens. Their favorite food seems to be acorns and they are almost always found near oak trees, especiallly in autumn.
They were certainly very common here a few years ago. Although I think we had fewer magpies then, so maybe they have kicked their cousins the jays out of our garden.
Here is a jay in our garden in March 2009, a time when it was a common sight – and sound, with its coughing squawk…
If my cat hasn’t finished his breakfast, I put it outside the back door when I go out (no cat flap). My cat prefers the jelly to the meat, so I often find sucked pieces of cat food. Hpowever, last year, I started finding the opposite – the jelly thrown out of the dish and the meat gone.
The culprits – you guessed it – is a pair of magpies. Now they come to the back door in anticipation.
I expect the magpie would give your cat a good fight if challenged for the food (although they could just share, I suppose, perhaps with the cat licking the jelly off first).
They do seem to be general scavengers (or dustbins). Our magpies will eat old fruit pie (lemon curd or apricot) and potatoes. But they draw the line at pieces of apple. I can’t get anything to eat old apples, not even the squirrels…
love your magpies… first I’ve ever seen!
Ah yes, but you have such wonderful and colourful birds in the USA, with amazing names, too, such as this eastern towhee (another magpie relative) from Kerri in Virginia…
Best wishes 🙂
Beautiful birds, amazing photos. I love the Thieving Magpie–thank for posting.
Thank you Mrs Daffodil 🙂
And I have just been over to your blog, too, and seen your lovely new Erythronium painting. I will Tweet it right away!
Would you believe, as I write this, a pair of Magpies is out along our boundary with next door’s farmyard, scolding and scolding, as there is a tom cat out there, doing the rounds.
As we feed an outside stray cat, the Magpies were quick to home in on this (as well as the Jackdaws) and last year as soon as their fledgelings were flying, they would bring the youngsters to partake of the feast!
Lovely! I don’t think I have spotted any magpie fledgelings, ever.
Last year by the time they brought the “kids” to visit they were already pretty grown up, just a bit smaller than their parents. I must put out some cat food!
Best wishes and thanks so much for the comment 🙂
Yes..the corvids have a bad rep, but when they actually studied blue jays which I have here, only a tiny part of their diet was egg. They are so smart and some are able to solve problems..amazing..I love these photos…Michelle
Thank you for your kind comments. And you have such colourful corvids in the USA!
How beautiful! This is truly a lovely bird.
Indeed 🙂