Ah the Australian magpie. With its glossy tuxedo plumage, heavy bill, and charismatic reputation it’s no wonder it’s a favorite among corvid lovers. Why then, do scientists keep insisting that it’s not, in fact, a corvid? This insistence of ours can feel arbitrary, even perhaps insulting, to a bird that superficially looks and acts like the corvids we know.
A still frame from the infamously cute video of an Aussie magpie and a puppy play-wrestling together.
To address this question, corvid expert and my colleague, Jennifer Campbell-Smith, recently penned a terrific piece to lay the confusion to rest. I recommend everyone take the time to read it in full.
If you do not have time, the short version of the story is that physiologically, Australian magpies, like the other butcherbirds they are classified with, lack the nasal bristles indicative of corvids. Genetically, DNA work done in the late 80’s also showed that, while they share a common ancestor, are are phylogentically distinct from other corvids. There has been some back and forth since then on the details, but there’s no scientific evidence that we should be lumping them in with corvids.
The nasal feathers are those thin, wire like feathers covering the base of the bill on the crow to the right, but conspicuously absent on the Aussie magpie to the left. Australian magpie photo: Guy Poisson
Why this bums so many corvids lovers out is a curious mystery to me. Personally, I find the convergent evolution with respect to both appearance and behavior much more interesting than if we simply made a taxonomic mistake. As for whether corvid lovers should continue to find joy and fascination in observing these birds well, I’ll direct you to this video and let you be the judge.
corvidresearch.blog 
Isn’t there a bio-geographical feature called the “Wallace Line” that separates areas where species native to Eurasia evolved and those with a more ancient ancestry evolved?
Australia is famous for having such a strange and different evolutionary history and that such a successful body plan and suite of behaviors exhibited by corvids should evolve in a different lineage in a different place should be no surprise
Hi Andy, sorry I missed this comment for so long, something things get a little lost in the shuffle! You’re absolutely right, the Wallace Line plays a critical role in the distinctiveness and diversity of species we see in Australia vs regions that, as the crow flies, may not appear to be in fact that far away. And, yes, despite the fact we know these organisms took a distinct evolutionary path, convergent evolution means that some of them appear quite similar to animals in other parts of the world. Excellent point.
Hi Kaeli:
I was wondering where that would leave the Rook. It has a partially bare face… not sure about nasal bristles though! Thanks for your blog. It’s AWESOME!
Leon
Great question Leon. Rooks do have nasal bristles when they are young, but they lose them as they transition to adult plumage. There’s another corvid species with a similar story (the bare-faced crow, Corvus tristis). Those are the only two exceptions I know of! Glad you’re enjoying the blog.
Hi,
Rooks! It’s not just the New Caledonian crow…
http://www.pnas.org/content/106/25/10370.long
…in action (sry, no better video quality found so far)…
…on a cold (humid air) morning at my observing site…
…pants down. Beautiful birds.
And… yes, thanks for this great blog!
Thanks for the info, fascinating! The Corvids are my favourite group of birds, I’m new to bird watching but love watching them at the feeding table, especially the Crows.
I lived in Australia for 14 years in my teenage- mid twenties; in the bush. We would leave bits of ham on the balcony and the magpies would come right next to where we were sitting and eat the ham right there. The British Magpies are a lot more shy I find.
I also had horses and we had to wear sunglasses on the top of our heads when we went into the fields as the territorial Magpies was fly in low and peck the back of your head with their strong beak; jeez it would hurt, I actually have a scar?! The trick of the sunglasses was it made the bids think you were looking at them so they wouldn’t attack. 😂
I also agree we can’t lump them altogether. I mean if their dna is indicating otherwise. It makes it all the more interesting.
Thanks
Magpies do have nasal bristles- I can send you photos
Hi, they do not. I can look up pictures to verify this without you needing to send some. Perhaps you are confusing the facial feathers that abut the bill with nasal feathers?
Excellent article! However, I wanted to let you know that the link in this paragraph ‘To address this question, corvid expert and my colleague, Jennifer Campbell-Smith, recently penned a terrific piece to lay the confusion to rest. I recommend everyone take the time to read it in full.’ does not actually lead to the referenced article! Instead it goes to a Spanish tourism site.
Thanks for the heads up! It looks like she must have taken her blog down 😦