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Black-billed Magpie - Skjære - Pica pica
Skata - Husskade - Harakka - Ekster - Elster

Magpies are an extremely common and much maligned bird over most of Northern Europe. However, they do look quite good when the sun shines on them and they are one of the few species smart anough and tough enough to outwit and tease cats.

Love them or hate them, they are here to stay and they do have their advantages. Some even occasioanlly show signs of migration - I've seen them well up in the mountains way past their normal habitat and they turn up on offshore islands too.

Black-billed Magpie
Magpie,Tjeldstø, November 2009 (DSLR + 400mm telephoto lens - hand held)

The long-winded English name is presumably meant to separate it from the Yellow-billed Magpie which I saw in the parking lot of a factory in California whilst indulging in some "smoke break birding".







Magpie
Tjeldstø, February 2010





Fighting Magpies
Fighting Magpies - something these birds are notorious for. It is quite a regular sight to witness several Magpies ganging up on a lone bird and really beating it up
Nautnes, Øygarden, May 2014

Mud wrestling birds
AA life and death struggle that this Magpie ultimately lost. Click on the image for more pictures of these mud-wrestling birds.
Tjeldstø, March 2012



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