Australian Magpies, like this juvenile, are arguably the quintessential Aussie birds. They’re such comical, melodic characters.
1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 1600
Canon 5DSR, Canon 100-400mm L IS USM
From the scruffy look of the juvenile it would be less than three months old. When they’re this young I can’t tell whether they are male or female. As adults the males have bright white backs while the females’ backs are grey – they have their adult plumage by the age of two or three. This bird was crazily noisy (typical of young magpies), striding around the garden after its parents, loudly demanding to be fed. It was moving so fast that bits of soil and seeds can be seen floating about in the photograph.
1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 1600
Canon 5DSR, Canon 100-400mm L IS USM
In the shot above I think it looks as though its wearing some kind of frilly frock with a pair of feathery bloomers.
Australian Magpies are found across the country apart from the western coast of Tasmania and some inland desert areas. There are three subspecies, white-backed (like today’s juvenile), black-backed and scaly-backed.
I love waking up to the warbling melodies of magpies, and watching them always makes me smile. Yesterday’s chuckle was watching one tugging at a worm when a rabbit bounded past – the magpie got itself in a surprisingly comical flap.
Happy birding, Kim
~ Facebook page Kim Wormald – lirralirra
~ Facebook group Ethical Bird Photography
Lovely pic thanks. I noticed how one of our very friendly babies has a lot of brown and went looking to check if normal.
He warbles and chats away a lot. His father sometimes sits on our balcony and talks in between the singing. He says “ here boy” and can also bark like a dog. Thought I was going crazy first time I heard it. Haha
Hi Rosemary, what a neat young magpie you have at your place! Please tag me if you ever manage to get a video of it, Kim
I’ll aim to answer these comments later today, thank you all!
Oh he’s gorgeous Kim! And reminds so much of Victoria and a family of magpies we watched grow when living down South for a while. They certainly are demanding adolescents and always entertaining. Sue 🙂
I’m glad it brought back good memories for you Sue, you are so right about how entertaining they are 🙂
Love the second photo Kim….Great capture!
Thanks so much Gai, I’m glad you like it 🙂
Terrific pic Kim of a very self important youngster 😀
It really does look self important! And it was certainly a very demanding youngster.
I adore the magpie (and the currawong) warble. They both sing of home to me.
I read somewhere (I think) that young magpies continue to beg for food for a long time because their beaks have not fully hardened and if they were to attempt to stab the ground for worms they could damage them. Which makes sense given our frequently sun-baked ground.
Or perhaps like adolescent of every species they just prefer the easier option.
They are definitely the sounds of home. When my eldest daughter was overseas she often mentioned how much she missed the call of the maggies. I wonder if that’s the case with their bills, it seems to make sense.
Aww! Scruffy does look like it’s wearing a frilly petticoat!Such a gorgeous photo of a young one! You always know how to capture birds at their best, Kim.
Thanks so much Marg. I thought it looked so funny in it’s frilly costume, I’m glad you liked it too.
I always love the sound of magpies! I could never understand why they weren’t called currawongs, and the currawongs magpies. Its a much prettier name that would go with their calls.
That’s a really interesting point Bridget! I think we should put you in charge of a name change 🙂