The Tuggeranong one has just arrived here. Glad I waited to respond because the photo of our bird is correct, but yes the image is a stylised symbol and yes
it is the Eurasian Magpie. There is no email address of the editor so knowing how to respond is unclear.
This is what I responded to them:
“There is an item on the back page of "Our Canberra" September 2017 entitled "It’s Magpie Swooping Season". There is a street scene photograph and our Magpie.
However, strangely beside the title there is a symbolic image of a bird that is not based on a Australian Magpie. It is a Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica) a quite different species, that is a member of the crow family and does not swoop at people. Even in a simplistic
picture the long tail and the different arrangement of black & white makes the wrong bird identity obvious.
When early settlers came to Australia over 200 years ago they gave the same names to a lot of our different birds that reminded them of birds back home. You
have reversed the error.
You may even be interested in the book on the subject, called: ‘Magpie alert: learning to live with a wild neighbour" by Darryl Jones 2002).”
Philip
From: Rosemary Blemings [
Sent: Monday, 4 September, 2017 9:18 PM
To: canberra birds
Subject: [canberrabirds] Magpies
We’ve just found the latest Our Canberra: Belconnen Edition
newsletter in the mailbox.
On the back, justifiably, is a panel entitled It’s Magpie Swooping Season.
There’s a street scene photograph and a Magpie “comin at yer” but beside the title there’s an image of a European Magpie
Pica Pica.
