Australian Magpie

Description:

Medium sized black and white birds. Similar in size to Crows and Currawongs. Currawongs are sometimes mistaken for magpies but have a lot less white in their plumage. Australian Magpies have quite a distinctive white beak with a black tip.

Habitat:

Though we live in suburban Sydney,our house backs onto quite a large park, and woodland that runs down to a river nearby. The Magpies nest in a large gum tree at the front of our property (and wake us early each morning with their course "cawww"-ing), but we often see them in our back garden, drinking from the bird-bath, and hopping around on the lawn. They even come right up to the house and have stolen strawberries from pots right outside the door.

Notes:

This family of magpies seem to be relatively calm around people. Junior here was sitting on the fence near the bird-bath, soa slowly walked over with a watering can to top it up for him, and he actually hopped onto the bird-bath while I was still standing no more than a metre away. The parent flew down and stayed on the fence just beyond until I backed off a couple more steps, but then she too went to the water - very trusting of me, even when I returned (very slowly) with my camera to get these shots.