From a distance the Magpie is a black and white crow with a long tail. The tail accounts for over half the total length of the bird and is an indication of the bird's status in its society. The head, breast and back are black, the shoulders patches, belly and flanks are white. The black wings and tail, however, are a beautiful glossy, iridescent blue, green and purple. The bill and legs are black.

They have quite a varied diet in their original rural habitat - insects, rodents, carrion, eggs and nestlings, grain, berries and fruit. This variety carries over into the suburban garden where they will also eat allsorts of kitchen scraps and bird foods.

Both birds build the large nest, which can take several weeks to complete, from small branches and twigs, and line it with mud and vegetation. Both parents feed the young after they have hatched. Magpies are sedentary birds, rarely moving far from their birth place. Magpies are persecuted by gamekeepers but to a much lesser extent than before the last century.