The Eurasian magpie or common magpie (Pica pica) is a resident breeding bird throughout the northern part of the Eurasian continent. It is one of several birds in the crow family designated magpies, and belongs to the Holarctic radiation of “monochrome” magpies. In Europe, “magpie” is used by English speakers as a synonym for the European magpie: the only other magpie in Europe is the Iberian magpie (Cyanopica cooki), which is limited to the Iberian Peninsula. The Eurasian magpie is one of the most intelligent birds, and it is believed to be one of the most intelligent of all non-human animals. Magpies were originally known as simply “pies”. This comes from a proto-Indoeuropean root meaning “pointed”, in reference to either the beak or the tail. The prefix “mag” dates from the 16th century and comes from the short form of the given name Margaret, which was once used to mean women in general (as Joe or Jack is used for men today); the pie’s call was considered to sound like the idle chattering of a woman, and so it came to be called the “Mag pie”. “Pie” as a term for the bird dates to the 13th century, and the […]