FTLComm - Saskatoon - June 4, 2000

About to spring into flight we see a Magpie above as one of the best dress birds, always in formal attire like the Raven and Crow the magpie belongs to the same family of omnivores (Corvidae). Can handle a diet of plants, dead animals or other bird's eggs. It was its nasty habit of raiding nests that earned the magpie as my mother's least favoured bird. These are big birds from seventeen to twenty-two inches in length and their tale alone is up to a foot long. This black billed version is referred to as the American Magpie but is one of the many varieties of magpies world wide. They build their massive nests in a tree or bush out of sticks with entrances on each side and will produce six to nine eggs at a time. Hunters who want to protect other bird species in their yards will discover the magpie like the crow wears a bullet proof vest, small calibre or air rife rounds will bounce of the chest of these fellows so hunting them requires something like a .222 or a shot gun. Fortunately we do not have that many of them and they are less a nuisance then they were several decades ago when song birds were seriously threatened from pesticides.