12/15/2025
Magpies, specifically the ●Black-billed Magpie, are year-round residents in Manitoba🇨🇦 and are known for their remarkable intelligence and complex social behaviors‼️
💖Here are some fun facts about them:
🪶Exceptional Intelligence: Magpies are considered one of the most intelligent animals in the world. They belong to the corvid family (along with crows and ravens) and are among the few non-mammal species capable of recognizing themselves in a mirror, a sign of self-awareness.
🪶"Funerals": When a magpie discovers a dead magpie, it often calls loudly to attract others. A group of up to 40 birds may gather around the body for 10-15 minutes before dispersing, a behavior often referred to as a "funeral".
🪶Master Architects: They build huge, domed nests made of sticks, which can take up to 40 days to construct and often have two entrances. These sturdy nests can last for years and are sometimes used by other raptors, such as owls, after the magpies have abandoned them.
🪶Helpful Partners: Magpies have a symbiotic relationship with large mammals like deer, moose, and cattle. They land on their backs to pick off and eat ticks and other insects, which helps keep the animals free of parasites.
Lewis and Clark's Thieves: Historical accounts from the Lewis and Clark expedition report that magpies were bold enough to enter their tents to steal food.
🪶Diverse Diet: As omnivores and resourceful opportunists, they eat a wide variety of food, including insects, seeds, fruit, small rodents, and carrion. They will even flip over cow dung to find the insects underneath.
🪶Food Caching: Magpies cache food for short periods, burying items in the ground or snow. They often use scent and sight to locate their hidden food later.
🪶Vocal Mimics: They are very vocal birds with a wide range of calls. If raised by humans from a young age, they have the ability to mimic human speech and other sounds like dog barking or car alarms.
🪶Social Life: Magpies are highly social and form pairs that often mate for life. They form large, noisy communal roosts in the winter, sometimes with hundreds of birds.
🪶Resilient Residents: The Black-billed Magpie population in Manitoba disappeared with the decline of the bison herds but re-established and increased steadily until the 1980s. They are resilient and adaptable birds that thrive in both natural and urban environments.
🌹A group of magpies is often known by collective nouns such as a "parliament," "mischief," or "tidings".
