Australian Magpie portrait

The Australian magpie (Cracticus tibicen) is possibly our most common and best known bird.

Today I spotted this one, a regular in our local family that I have blipped before, sitting on the balcony rail, hoping for some mince. As such they make great models, not camera shy, and you can go up very close to them. Hence this head portrait I am blipping today of a female.

Closer-up

The Australian Magpie is black and white, but the plumage pattern varies across its range. Its nape, upper tail and shoulder are white in males, grey in females. Across most of Australia, the remainder of the body is black. The eye of adult birds is chestnut brown.

I last blipped a magpie on May 15th with my different and smaller Murray Magpie.