Magical, mythical magpies

THIS article is based upon the sightings of a flock of seven magpies in a field of sheep opposite my house in Somerset, England and seeing them also in my garden together with my sightings of these interesting birds in Sabah and Sarawak.

All pretty tame experiences but nothing like the swooping attack by an Australia magpie that a Kuching friend suffered while walking along the River Torrens Park Trail in Adelaide, South Australia earlier last month.

Interestingly, magpies of all types never hop along the ground but strut and walk like human beings. I shall now concentrate on each of three types of magpies, the Malayan black magpie, the Bornean black magpie, both members of the Corvidae family, and the South Australian white magpie, more related to the black butcher bird and a member of the Artamidae family, which houses nine subspecies.

Malayan black magpie (Platysmurus leucopterus)

This species ranges across both East and Peninsular Malaysia to Sumatera living in both primary and secondary forests, as well as on forest edges and clearings and in forest reserves in urban areas, adapting well to threats to its natural habitat through forest clearance for logging, agriculture, and forever urban expansion.

Striking bird

Its glossy black plumage, shimmering with iridescence, overlies a body length to include its long tail of between 40cm to 45cm.

With upper wing white patches, most visible in flight, and a strong sturdy bill and legs and a piercing orange and black eye and long tail, it is quite distinctive.

Usually, its breeding season starts in March and lasts until June during which elaborate courtship displays may be observed.

Once a pair get together, they both contribute to building a cup shaped nest, high up in the forest canopy. The nest is built of twigs, leaves, and other plant materials.

A clutch of two to four eggs is laid and both parents take it in turns to incubate.

The newly-hatched blind and helpless chicks need considerable parental care from both parents until they fledge after roughly three weeks.

In the wild, they then may live for up to 10 years.

Diet and vocalisations

Omnivorous, its diet consists of many insect species and fruits and seeds and sometimes, small vertebrates.

Renowned for its inquisitive nature and intelligence, its vocalisations are both complex and varied, ranging from cackles to melodious whistles and, as with most magpie species, the ability to mimic other species of bird.

Bornean black magpie (Platysmurus aterrimus)

Once considered a species of the Malayan black magpie, this bird is only found in Borneo and is a treepie variety. Living in lowland forests up to an altitude of 300 metres, it has wide woodland habitats varying from primary forests, dipterocarp, kerangas, and swamp forests, secondary forests, overgrown plantations, and soft wood areas.

With all black plumage, it is distinctive by its long, broad, and bristly crest. Whilst lacking in white wing colourings of other magpie varieties, it is also distinguished by its black feet and legs and its perceptive eyes with red irises.

Often seen in family groups, for it is a very sociable bird, it has a length of about 43cm from its head to its long black tail and flies with very shallow wing beats.

Building a nest with sticks about eight to 10 metres high in small trees, it feeds mostly on insects, fruit, and foliage but occasionally, when the chance arises, feeds on small animals and reptiles.

Whilst it easily mimics the calls of other birds, very little is known about this crested magpie.

South Australian white backed magpie (Gymnorhina telonocua)

These birds as previously mentioned are of a different order to other species of Australian magpie, including the Australian black backed magpie, which is also found in New Guinea and was introduced to New Zealand in 1864 where today it is treated as a pest, for it raids the nest eggs of other native birds.

The white backed species found in the Adelaide area of South Australia is that of Gymnorhina telonocua.

Size, nesting, and breeding

These magpies range in length from 37cm to 43 cm and possess a wingspan of 65cm to 85 cm, and weigh between 220 grammes and 350 grammes.

With dullish red eyes, long legs, and a slightly hooked end to their beaks they, indeed, look pretty fearsome.

Their breeding season usually occurs in August and September and may even extend to December. Bowl-like nests made of sticks and lined with grass and bark are constructed by both male and female birds high up in the forks of usually eucalyptus trees.

The female lays a clutch of between two and five light blue or greenish oval shaped eggs and after approximately 20 days of incubation the chicks hatch, pink, naked, and blind.

They possess large feet and short broad beaks with bright red throats. These nestlings are fed by their mother with the male partner feeding the female.

The young feed themselves after six months and eventually leave the nest after eight months up to four years.

Diet

An omnivorous bird, it eats invertebrates such as earthworms, millipedes, spiders, snails, and scorpions together with ants, beetles, earwigs, caterpillars, cicadas, cockroaches, moths as well as grasshoppers, frogs, small birds, and carrion supplemented by figs, rain, walnuts, and tubers.

Swooping

Many Australian magpies have settled down in parks and forest reserves in or near Australian cities and swoop down unannounced upon unsuspecting people when they venture past trees housing these magpies’ nests.

This usually occurs in the breeding season from late August to early December.

This is not unlike seagulls who become opportunist thieves swooping down in summertime upon tourists munching ice creams or Cornish pasties in the open air in seaside towns in Cornwall and Devon in England.

Hey presto and the food is gone with the gulls descending some distance away to enjoy their takings!

To date, this year, as spring has just ended there, some 4,734 magpie attacks have been reported in Australia with 567 injuries.

As these birds are a protected species in almost every Australian state, people are not allowed to take up firearms. Many injuries are caused by attacks at people’s eyes for this is the easiest way of disabling a human being.

Cyclists are most vulnerable to these magpie attacks for these intelligent birds learn to recognise familiar faces often targeting the same cyclist, or walker, en route to their workplace.

Cyclists now wear protective helmets with hedgehog-like spikes attached, goggles and ear protectors!

My Kuching friend soon changed her route to walk along the opposite riverbank trail in Adelaide.

Despite their nuisance value, since 1904 white backed magpies have appeared on the South Australia state flag. As with many football teams in the UK from Penzance to Newcastle sporting black-and-white shirts and thus called ‘The Magpies’, so in Australia the Port Adelaide team wears the same strips and receive the same name ‘Magpies’.

For centuries these magical, intelligent birds have long dwelt in the legends, folklore, and myths of local people wherever they have been seen in our world.

May these legends, like the magpies, never disappear.

May I take this opportunity to wish the editors, writers, printers, distributors, and readers of The Borneo Post and thesundaypost, as well as my very many friends in Sarawak and Sabah, “A very Happy Christmas to you and yours.”