Australian Magpie Gymnorhina tibicen
Male Australian Magpie, Wye Valley, Victoria, Australia, February 2006 - click for larger image Australia
February / March 2006

The Australian Magpie is distributed throughout most of Australia, including Tasmania, except the very arid interior and the extreme north. They are also found in New Guinea.

Female Australian Magpie, You Yangs, Victoria, Australia, February 2006 - click for larger image It is a social bird living in smallish groups and feeds on the ground where it preys on invertebrates.

It is a bird of open woodland and requires trees for nesting. Schodde & Mason mention that before settlement the species occurred in islands of open woodland "within a sea of denser forest across the continent." This has led to a high degree of regional differentiation and intergradation as the species has spread in line with the disappearance of the forest.

Male Australian Magpie, Wyperfield, Victoria, Australia, February 2006 - click for larger image There are 9 sub-species only one of which is not found in Australia. I have tried to identify these photos by sub-species but some may represent intergradations between sub-species.

Photos 1 (male) and 2 (female) are of the sub-species G. t. tyrannica. The back is uniformly white in males and clouded milky-white in females. The female also has a broadened whitish collar. The sub-species is further distinguished by the very broad black terminal band on the tail.

Female Australian Magpie, Wyperfield, Victoria, Australia, February 2006 - click for larger image I think that photo 3 is also a male tyrannica though the black terminal band on the tail does not look so broad. This photo was taken at Wyperfield, Victoria as was photo 4 which shows a totally different plumage most notably the black rather than whitish back. I am assuming that this bird is of the race terraereginae and that the milky-grey collar suggests that it is a female. Wyperfield is in the zone of intergradation between these two sub-species.
Male Australian Magpie, Port Elliot, South Australia, March 2006 - click for larger image Photo 5 was taken at Port Elliot in South Australia and I believe shows a female of the sub-species telonocua. This race has a white back in the male while in the female the back is a dull mid-grey with white edging and the whitish collar is narrower. The terminal black band on the tail is medium sized.
Male Australian Magpie, Wilpena Pound, South Australia, March 2006 - click for larger image Photo 6 was taken at Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Range of South Australia and I believe this shows a male terraereginae with the white collar hardly extending onto the mantle and a narrow black terminal band on the tail.
Immature Australian Magpie, Coffee Creek, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, February 2006 - click for larger image Photos 6 and 7 were taken in Tasmania and so are of the sub-species G. t. hypoleuca. The mottling on the underparts and darker bill indicate that this is an immature.
Immature Australian Magpie, Coffee Creek, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, February 2006 - click for larger image
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