Australia's Virtuosic Avian Songsters: The Magpies
#transitzone by Peter Clarke, Margo Kingston and Tim Dunlop
Episode notes
The Australian Magpie is renowned for its glorious carolling songs. An Australian specialist ground feeder, which can hear even the faint sounds of a worm slithering centimetres under the ground's surface, it is a highly intelligent, very social bird that maintains its territory 365 days a year, not just during the breeding season. Its complex and sophisticated vocalisations are a key aspect of that territoriality. Many in Australia consider the Magpie their favourite bird but not unanimously. Its breeding season attacks on pedestrians and cyclists have cruelled its reputation with the victims and their family and friends. The Australian Butcher Birds are part of the Magpies' broader family and they certainly have the virtuosic vocal dexterity and musical inventiveness of their cousins, the Magpies.
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