A Rainbow of Magpies

BirdNote^®

A Rainbow of Magpies

Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote.
[Indochinese Green-Magpie, https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/113562, 0.14-0.16]
An Indochinese Green-Magpie bows and raises its long tail. Such a beautiful bird should take a bow. 
We’re in Southeast Asia and, unlike the black and white magpies of open landscapes in the American West, this forest bird is vivid green with bright red wings and a red beak.
[Indochinese Green-Magpie, https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/113562, 0.14-0.16]
Another stunning magpie—rich rusty-brown and dark blue—is the Sri Lanka Blue-Magpie, which lives only in the island’s tropical forest canopy.  
[Sri Lanka Blue-Magpie, https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/42415841, 0.12–0.16]
Altogether, there are five blue-feathered magpies and four green, all living in warm zones of south and east Asia. Nine species are predominantly black and white. But a small, exquisite group has azure wings and powder-gray bodies. While these groups are not all closely related, they are all a part of the same family as crows and jays. And they are among the most intelligent of birds.
[another magpie call here]
But these brilliantly colored magpies? They’ve got brains and beauty.
[another magpie call here]
For BirdNote, I’m Mary McCann.
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Senior Producer: John Kessler
Production Manager: Allison Wilson
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
Digital Producer: Conor Gearin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Indochinese Green-Magpie ML 113562 recorded by L. Macaulay and Sri Lanka Blue-Magpie ML 42415841 recorded by J. Holmes.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2021 BirdNote      Narrator: Mary McCann
ID# magpie-01-2021-08-31    magpie-01   

Reference: https://carolinabirds.org/HTML/Corvidae_Magpie.htm