Azure-winged Magpie

Azure-winged Magpie

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Corvidae
Genus:	Cyanopica
Species:	cyanus

Binomial name

Cyanopica cyanus

Cyanopica (cyanus) cooki

The Azure-winged Magpie (Cyanopica cyanus, sometimes spelled Cyanopica cyana) is similar in overall shape to the European Magpie (Pica pica) but is a more slender bird with proportionately smaller legs and bill. It has a glossy black top to the head and a white throat. The underparts and the back are a light grey-fawn in colour with the wings and the long tail feathers a beautiful azure blue. It inhabits various types of coniferous (mainly pine) and broadleaf forest, including parks and gardens in the eastern populations.

It occurs in two population groups separated by a huge geographical region between. One population lives in western Europe, specifically the south western part of the Iberian peninsula, in Spain and Portugal. The other population occurs over a much larger region of eastern Asia in most of China, Korea, Japan, and north into Mongolia. Recent genetic analysis has shown that the two populations are distinct at species level, under which the Iberian Azure-winged Magpie would take the name Cyanopica cooki, though this change has yet to be formally incorporated in the European bird list.

Often food is found as a family group or several groups making flocks of up to 30 birds, and consists mainly of acorns (oak seeds) and pine nuts, extensively supplemented by invertebrates and their larvae, soft fruits and berries, and also human-provided scraps in parks and towns.

Usually nests in loose, open colonies with a single nest in each tree. There are usually between 6-8 eggs that are incubated for 15 days.

The voice is a quick fired and metallic sounding kwink-kwink-kwink usually preceeded by a single "krarrah".