Studies of Less Familiar Birds Iy8 Azure-Winged Magpie Derek Goodwin Photographs by A

Studies of less familiar birds iy8 Azure-winged Magpie Derek Goodwin Photographs by A. N. H. Peach, Eric Hosking and P. F. Bonham Plates 64-66 The Azure-winged Magpie Cyanopica cyanus is remarkable both for the delicate beauty of its appearance and its extremely disjunct range. It is found only in Iberia and eastern Asia. It has often been suggested that the Iberian population might be a feral one and owe its origin to escaped or liberated captives that had been brought back by early Portuguese or Spanish traders with the Far East. In view of the amount of geographic differentiation known to have taken place in the House Sparrow Passer domesticus in less than a hundred years since its introduction into North America (Johnston and Selander 1964), the racial differences between the Iberian and Far Eastern forms cannot be held completely to invalidate this theory. A more cogent objection is that, contrary to popular opinion, successful introductions of birds to new areas, though often attempted, seem seldom to have been successful except where quite large numbers of healthy individuals were liberated together. It is unlikely that large numbers of Azure-winged Magpies were formerly brought to Iberia and allowed to escape or that the escape of only a few individuals would have led to their establishment. That the Azure-winged Magpie may be a declining species that once in habited a much larger area is suggested by the fact that, within its present range, it is absent from many areas that appear, to orni thologists, to be suitable. At least in eastern Asia it seems unlikely that this has been caused by human persecution and, although in Iberia its recent decrease may have been due to killing by Man, its patchy distribution is thought to reflect rather rigid habitat and/or temperature requirements (Dos Santos 1968). Similar in shape to a Magpie Pica pica except for its proportionately smaller bill and feet, the Azure-winged Magpie is a much less bulky bird, its body size being about that of a Song Thrush Turdus philomelos. The general coloration is a soft greyish fawn widi a slightly pinkish tinge, glossy black head, white throat and light azure or powder blue wings and tail. This description applies to the Iberian form. Far Eastern birds differ in being slightly larger widi proportionately longer tails and paler and greyer body colour. They also have broad white tips to the central tail feathers and often narrow white tips to some or all of the others, whereas the Iberian 484 IBrit. Birds, 68: 484-488, December 1975] Azure-winged Magpie studies 485 form only exceptionally retains white tips to the tail feathers when adult. Many slightly differentiated and usually intergrading races have been described but, in general, these tend to blur rather than emphasise the main differences, which are between the Iberian and Asian forms. In all Azure-winged Magpies the upperparts tend to be browner in worn plumage, unless much bleached, in which case they become very pale. These differences, which are due to wear, seem usually more marked in the Iberian than in Far Eastern forms. The juvenile is darker and browner with buffish tips to its dull black head feathers, greyish-brown to brownish-blue wing coverts and white-tipped tail feathers even in the Iberian race. The two central tail feathers of the juvenile plumage are relatively narrow and weak in texture and grow to only about half the length of the next pair, instead of being longer as in subsequent plumages. Stegmann (1931) seems to have been the first to describe this phenomenon. Some, and possibly all, juveniles renew their wing and tail quills at the first moult. In Europe the long blue tail is a diagnostic field character, possessed by no other bird. In the Far East its black bill and white throat at once distinguish it from the Red-billed Blue Magpie Cissa erythrorhyncha, which is also much larger and longer-tailed. In western Europe it is confined to the western, central and southern parts of Spain and Portugal. In eastern Asia it occurs in eastern, central and northern China, northward to Transbaicalia and Mongolia, the Amur Basin, Korea and Japan. It is found in open woodland, both coniferous and deciduous, cultivated or open country with groves of trees, thickets, orchards, hedges or other cover, riparian woodlands, gardens and parks. In its European range Dos Santos (1968) found that it is essentially a bird of the warmer valleys and that local populations are often widely separate from one another. In the Far East, however, it occurs in some areas which have cold winters and heavy snowfall (Hosono 1967). It is largely resident but evidently indulges in some local migrations or wanderings as it may be absent from its breeding areas during the winter. The Azure-winged Magpie feeds both in trees and on the ground (plate 64b), where it hops and sometimes polka-steps but, unlike the Magpie, does not also walk. The food consists largely of insects and their larvae, especially beetles (and including the Colorado Beetle Leptinotarsa decemlineata), soft fruits and berries. It is said (Valverde, in Turcek and Kelso 1968) also to feed on and store seeds of stone pine Pinus pinea, acorns and olives. In captivity it hides food in the usual manner of most other corvids. Large objects are held under one foot and torn or dissected with the bill. It readily learns to take 486 Azure-winged Magpie studies human foods when given the opportunity and sometimes, at least in the Far Eastern parts of its range, scavenges around houses and garbage tips. The Azure-winged Magpie is usually found in small parties, even in the breeding season. Although there appear to be no records of more than one pair attendant on a nest the possibility that, as in some of the social American jays, birds other than their parents may assist in feeding the young should be borne in mind and watched for. The species appears often to nest in loose colonies, with the individual nests usually in separate trees or bushes and often up to ioo metres apart. The nest is open and cup-shaped, built of twigs and sticks with an inner wall of plant roots, fibres and similar materials and with a lining of fine roots, vegetable fibres, wool or hair. Usually, perhaps always, mud is used in the foundation of the nest. Both sexes build but more information is needed as to the extent to which each participates. I watched a pair in a zoo that were trying to build in an unsuitable site, as they had no other: the male, after taking up (separately) one or two sticks to the site, tore up stems and roots of grass until he had a bundle and then, keeping them in his mouth, picked up damp sand (since no mud was available) from the shaded part of the floor by partly opening and stabbing in his bill until he had both wet sand and grass; he then took the billful to the site and tried to plaster it down. The collecting procedure was very similar to that of the Swallow Hirundo rustica and, under natural conditions, doubtless serves to secure mud bound with roots or similar materials as a foundation. The five to nine huffish, greyish, whitish or greenish eggs are spotted with dark or olive brown and have underlying grey or purplish markings. Nests with eggs have been found most often in May or June throughout most of the species' range, but sometimes as early as March or as late as July. Incubation and brooding appear to be, as is usual in corvids other than nutcrackers Caryo- catactes spp, by the female only, who is fed by the male (plate 65b). Both sexes feed the young. In captivity in England, eggs of the Chinese form took 15 days to hatch, the hatching dates suggesting that true incubation began with the third egg (Porter 1941). Porter's birds were double-brooded and continued to feed the young of the first brood during incubation of the second clutch. It appears not to be known how many broods are usual in the wild. Attempts to transcribe bird calls are admittedly fallible but as I think they are better than nothing I make the following attempts. 'Krarraah! kwink-kwink-kwink', the first note very loud, harsh and upward-inflected, the 'kwinks' quick, metallic-sounding and also upward-inflected, appears to be an alarm call and may correspond to the chattering of the Magpie. I have heard it from captive birds Azure-winged Magpie studies 487 when I showed them some object such as the stuffed head of an Eagle Owl Bubo bubo, which appeared to arouse both fear and curiosity. I have also heard 'wee-we-wee-u', sometimes 'wee-we-we- wee-u', a soft, sweet but high-pitched whistling call with the final 'u' sharply upward-inflected. This was given to me by a tame male, I think in self-assertion or threat. It was usually accompanied by the tail-tilting and wing-fluttering display. 'K'we' or 'k'we(it)', a soft note, very like some of the softer variants of the appeal call of the Jay Garrulus glandarius but upwardly inflected, is given in various situations, especially when the bird is carrying food in its gullet and seems undecided where to hide it. 'Tschreeeeeh', a long- drawn, rather husky and sibilant call, is uttered, with apparent effort, in an upright posture with the bill raised a little above the horizontal and a very slight opening and sometimes quivering of the folded wings.

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