avatar_Chocky

Magpie

Started by Chocky, November 04, 2017, 12:24:52 PM

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Chocky

Showing off

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A true friend
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Mary Ann

Chocky, he/she is so pretty.  I don't think I've ever seen a magpie, but I have heard of them.

Mary Ann

PatH2

What a striking bird--dramatic black/white contrast.  We have very similar ones, but I've never seen them.  They are western birds, and I live in the east.

Chocky

#3
Thank you so much for your kind comments   :)

The green and blue you see are iridescent and only show up in the sunlight, miost of the time you don't see the colours

Here is one in flight. Notice you cannot see the blue and green

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A true friend
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angelface555

Beryl; I wasn't sure but I thought I had seen a similar local bird and this is what I found.

"May 16, 2014 - Biologists with the Alaska Bird Treatment and Learning Center believe there are as many as 180,000 magpies, or Pica hudsonia, living in Alaska, with untold thousands calling Anchorage home. They are resourceful, intelligent and social, members of the corvid family, which also includes ravens, crows and jays."

"The black-billed magpie (Pica hudsonia), also known as the American magpie, is a bird in the crow family that inhabits the western half of North America, from Colorado, to southern coastal Alaska to northern California, northern Nevada, northern Arizona, northern New Mexico, central Kansas, and Nebraska."

Now it says coastal but I have seen them here and we aren't coastal so they're still migrating. Photo from the article.

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Chocky

That is correct. Lovely capture. He has the iridescent colours too. The Jackdaw has grey eyes

The Black billed magpie is related to tye crow family the Magpie I have entered is the Pica pica they are the same family as Jays, crows. Ravens, Rooks  jackdaws, jays, Magpies, treepies, Choughs, and Nutcrackers. There is also a thick billed Raven.

Big family  :)
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angelface555

#6
Now Alaska has ravens but no crows or jackdaws. The local ravens move to the cooler mountains in the summertime and return to town during the winters. This is the information I found from Alaska's Fish and Game.

"Common ravens are playful. They carry sticks and feathers aloft, trade them back and forth in flight and drop and retrieve them in air. They will repeatedly slide single file down snow fields, seemingly just for the fun of it."

"The common raven (Corvus corax) is a member of a family of birds known as the Corvidae, which includes jays, crows, and magpies. In Alaska, the raven can only be confused with a hawk or the much smaller crow.
Common Raven Species Profile, Alaska Department of Fish and Game
www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=commonraven.main"

Chocky

Yes, That's right they all belong to the family Corvidae.
Quite a few of them aren't there? and they are very intelligent birds
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angelface555

Here there are a lot of ice fishermen. The Ravens have watched, learned and if you don't pay attention, they will swoop down, jiggle your line and pull up and steal your fish right off the line. They have also been known to tease chained dogs by prancing about just outside of the chain's range.

They also have been known to steal hats right off the head of the unsuspecting.  ???

PatH2

Wow, Angelface, I knew ravens were clever, but I didn't know they were also thieves.  It's usually magpies that get that label.  There's even an opera by Rossini, The Thieving Magpie (La Gazza Ladra).  You hear the magnificent overture a lot, but the opera not so often.  Here's the overture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYfaKAIf-SU

angelface555

#10
Somewhere there is a Youtube video of a raven swooping down and stealing the catch. I'll try to find it and also listen to your link. The hat trick is just to annoy folks as they either knock it right off or fly a little ways and then drop it.  Here is one link to an ice fishing thief.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0w9q125TSI

I listened to your link but I became caught up in watching the expressions and gestures of the composer and the musicians.


PatH2

That's quite a video, Angelface.  The raven has even worked out the trick of stepping on the line as he pulls it up, so it won't slip back.

The conductor is really overdramatizing, isn't he?

angelface555

Ravens, magpies, parrots, lovebirds, and parakeets which are known as being the "Hells Angels" of the avian world are some that I've personally seen do some amazing things. Parrots live long lives and retain much of what they've learned while I've seen large owls here turn their head almost entirely in a full circle, slowly, almost ponderously without moving their bodies which is creepy no matter how many times you see it.


The conductor was leading as much with his expressions as well as his body!