The Guardian

A magpie can recognise you – and four other fun facts about Australia’s most often-spotted bird

The feathered friend was recorded in half of the 153,000 surveys in BirdLife Australia’s Aussie Bird Count The Australian magpie has again topped the charts in BirdLife Australia’s Aussie Bird Count ...
Phys.org

Altruism in birds? Magpies have outwitted scientists by helping each other remove tracking devices

When we attached tiny, backpack-like tracking devices to five Australian magpies for a pilot study, we didn't expect to discover an entirely new social behavior rarely seen in birds. Our goal was to ...
The New York Times

‘They’re Outsmarting Us’: Birds Build Nests From Anti-Bird Spikes

Strips of sharp metal pins are meant to keep birds away from buildings. Some birds are stealing them to build their nests. A nest made from metal pins and other materials collected by magpies, found ...
NPR

Magpies' unexpected reaction to GPS trackers may have revealed altruism in the birds

Researchers tried to attach tracking devices to magpies for a study. But the magpies helped each other to remove them — a possible sign, the scientists say, of altruism in the birds. Birds in ...