Rufousy Brown Breasted Magpie

[Penn Gwynne <>]

G'day Peter and all,

Having raised a few magpies and also a few other birds in my life, I can say that, all that you have said is correct especially the color changes around the eyes.

Having the opportunity to view young ones in natural sunlight with the bird perched on the hand or shoulder allows easy slow rotation and better viewing. I think in fact I saw a very deep blue a few years back, in the eyebrow of a young female Oz magpie.

I named her "Silv" for some obscure reason.

"Eggbertina" also known as "Eggy" when she was young had the brown colouring across her breast as did "Silv". A wonderful local Oz fellow could sex them at 10 days of age? he was about 98 per cent correct ... just like humans eh?

If you think sending puta images might help then by all means do so.

Have a beaut day JAG de Whag

wrote:

While we are on the topic of strangely marked birds; I saw a magpie  the other day with a rufousy brown colouration over its breast. The colouration extended up under its chin to its beak, but its eye had a distinctly black ring around it and its ear patch was also black. It also had a rufousy brown eyebrow extending from its beak to the white patch on the back of its head/neck Its crown being black.

Are these common markings of a young magpie that are a little more defined than usual?

I have some photos clearly displaying the markings if anyone would like to see them.
Cheers,
Peter

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