A collector shows a magpie-themed stamp at a post office in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, Aug 28, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

If you've not seen them yet, you've definitely heard them squawking their distinctive "chachacha" from early morning to night, or else hopping about on the ground scouring for food and bits and pieces for their massive ball-like nests. Magpies are as much a part of Beijing as the Forbidden City (紫禁城, zǐ jìn chéng) and Peking duck (北京烤鸭, běi jīng kǎo yā). But how much do you really know about them?

First, there's the name. In Chinese, magpies are known as 喜鹊 (xǐ què), which roughly translates to "bird of happiness (吉祥鸟, jí xiáng niǎo)". It's believed magpies bring good luck and fortune (吉祥和好运, jí xiáng hé hǎo yùn). The birds even have a special place in Chinese folklore, being the birds that form the bridge (架起鹊桥, jià qǐ què qiáo) during Qixi Festival (七夕节, qī xī jié), to reunite two separated lovers.

The magpies you'll commonly see in Beijing are Oriental Magpies (东方喜鹊, dōng fāng xǐ què). Once considered a subspecies of the Eurasian magpie, Terry Townshend, a birding expert and founder of Birding Beijing, says the bird has recently been given full species status by taxonomic authorities.



Two Eurasian magpies have a face-to-face chat on the ground surrounded by tiny flowers in Beijing, April 2016. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Oriental Magpies have black and white plumage with slightly blue tails (羽毛黑白相间, 尾羽略带蓝色 yǔ máo hēi báixiāngjiān,wěiyǔ lüè dài lán sè), Townshend continues, and are not to be confused with another Beijing magpie resident – the Azure-winged Magpie (蓝羽喜鹊, lán yǔ xǐ què), which is gray with a blue tail and black on the head. There's also a third species that can be found in the mountains and larger parks, the Red-billed Blue Magpie (红嘴蓝尾喜鹊, hóng zuǐ lán wěi xǐ què), which has a spectacularly long tail and bright red bill.

Townshend adds Oriental Magpies are very adaptable, and tend to be found in higher densities around human habitation, as these scavengers are very fond of the food we throw away. That being said, they aren't always scavengers, but predators (捕食者, bǔ shí zhě) as well.

Along with eating just about anything they can get their talons or beaks on, Oriental Magpies are known to sneak into the nests of other birds around spring, stealing eggs or chicks to eat, according to an article on the birds from CGTN. This sometimes puts them at odds with the city's other scavenger birds, carrion crows (食腐鸟乌鸦, shí fǔ niǎo wū yā). You might see the two birds scuffling from time to time in the treetops.

Also like crows, magpies are incredibly smart. It's believed by some researchers that magpies are some of the most intelligent of all birds due to them having a brain-to-body mass ratio that's only outmatched by humans and equal to that of great apes, according to Encyclopedia Brittancia.

Thanks to this intelligence, they have an interesting array of habits. They usually forage for food on the ground but have been witnessed burying food for later use, and even holding "funerals (葬礼, zàng lǐ)" for dead magpies – in which they'll encircle the dead bird and mournfully squawk (哀嚎, āi háo).

So Beijing's noisiest bird (最吵闹的鸟, zuì chǎo nào de niǎo) is also one of its smartest (最聪明的鸟, zuì cōng míng de niǎo), hopping on the treetops and swooping over buildings as it lives amongst us as a scavenger and sometimes predator. Despite all that squawking and ruckus, though, perhaps the Oriental Magpie can bring a little luck, too.

来源：The Beijinger

编辑：万月英