Pica (bird)

Pica Temporal range: Pliocene–Recent PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Eurasian magpie (P. pica)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Corvidae
Subfamily:	Corvinae
Genus:	Pica Brisson, 1760
Type species
Corvus pica Linnaeus, 1758
Species
Pica pica Pica serica Pica mauritanica Pica asirensis Pica bottanensis Pica nuttallii Pica hudsonia

Pica is a genus of seven species of birds in the family Corvidae in both the New World and the Old. It is one of several corvid genera whose members are known as magpies. Pica have long tails and predominantly black and white plumage, with iridescent blue, green, purple and bronze colours on the wings and tail in good light. After Corvus, this genus is the second most widespread within the Corvidae family, being distributed across Eurasia, north Africa, and western North America. ^[1] Molecular phylogeny suggests that Pica is most closely related to nutcrackers ( Nucifraga ), jackdaws ( Coloeus ) and crows and ravens ( Corvus ). ^[2]

Taxonomy

The genus Pica was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. ^{[3] [4]} He derived the name by tautonymy from the specific epithet of the Eurasian magpie Corvus pica which was introduced by Linnaeus in 1758. ^{[4] [5]} Pica is the Latin word for the Eurasian magpie. ^[6]

In 2018, a molecular phylogenetic study found that the Eurasian magpie consisted of multiple species including the Maghreb magpie, the Asir magpie, the black-rumped magpie and the oriental magpie. ^[7]

Species

The genus contains seven living species; ^[8] species order follows AviList: ^[9]

Genus Pica – Brisson, 1760 – seven species

Common name	Scientific name and subspecies	Range	Size and ecology	IUCN status and estimated population
Maghreb magpie	Pica mauritanica Malherbe, 1845	northwest Africa	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Oriental magpie	Pica serica Gould, 1845 Two subspecies P. s. serica – Gould, 1845 P. s. anderssoni – Lönnberg, 1923	southeastern Russia and Myanmar to eastern China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and northern Indochina	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Black-rumped magpie	Pica bottanensis Delessert, 1840	central Bhutan, west-central China	Size: Habitat: Diet:	NE
Asir magpie	Pica asirensis Bates, 1936	Asir Region of Saudi Arabia	Size: Habitat: Diet:	EN
Eurasian magpie	Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) Six subspecies P. p. fennorum – Lönnberg, 1927 P. p. pica – (Linnaeus, 1758) P. p. melanotos – A.E. Brehm, 1857 P. p. bactriana – Bonaparte, 1850 P. p. leucoptera – Gould, 1862 P. p. camtschatica – Stejneger, 1884	Europe and Asia	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Black-billed magpie	Pica hudsonia (Sabine, 1823)	western half of North America	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Yellow-billed magpie	Pica nuttallii (Audubon, 1837)	California	Size: Habitat: Diet:	VU

This phylogeny was concluded by Gang Song et al.'s 2018 study; it included all the taxa. ^[7]

Pica	Pica mauretanica Maghreb magpie Pica serica Oriental magpie Pica bottanensis Black-rumped magpie Pica asirensis Asir magpie Pica pica Eurasian magpie Pica hudsonia Black-billed magpie Pica nuttallii Yellow-billed magpie

A cladogram was established in A. P. Kryukov's 2025 study; note that it is only partial, with Asir and black-rumped magpies not included. ^[10]

Pica	Eurasian magpie (P. pica) Black-billed magpie (P. hudsonia) Yellow-billed magpie (P. nuttalli) Maghreb magpie (P. mauritanica)
	Oriental magpie (P. serica)

Fossil species

Two prehistoric species of Pica are currently known: Pica mourerae , from fossils found in Pliocene–Pleistocene boundary strata on Mallorca, and Pica praepica , from Early Pleistocene strata of Bulgaria. ^{[11] [12]}

References

1. Garcia-Porta, Joan; Sol, Daniel; Pennell, Matt; Sayol, Ferran; Kaliontzopoulou, Antigoni; Botero, Carlos A. (2022-04-21). "Niche expansion and adaptive divergence in the global radiation of crows and ravens". Nature Communications. 13 (1): 2086. Bibcode:2022NatCo..13.2086G. doi:10.1038/s41467-022-29707-5. ISSN   2041-1723. PMC   9023458 . PMID   35449129.
2. McCullough, Jenna M; Hruska, Jack P; Oliveros, Carl H; Moyle, Robert G; Andersen, Michael J (2023-07-11). "Ultraconserved elements support the elevation of a new avian family, Eurocephalidae, the white-crowned shrikes" . Ornithology. 140 (3) ukad025. doi: 10.1093/ornithology/ukad025 . ISSN   0004-8038.
3. Brisson, Mathurin Jacques (1760). Ornithologie, ou, Méthode contenant la division des oiseaux en ordres, sections, genres, especes & leurs variétés (in French and Latin). Vol. 1. Paris: Jean-Baptiste Bauche. p. 30.
4. Mayr, Ernst; Greenway, James C. Jr, eds. (1962). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 15. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 250.
5. Linnaeus, C. (1758). Systema Naturæ per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis, Volume 1 (in Latin). Vol. 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae:Laurentii Salvii. p. 106.
6. Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p.  305. ISBN   978-1-4081-2501-4.
7. Song, S.; Zhang, R.; Alström, P.; Irestedt, M.; Cai, T.; Qu, Y.; Ericson, P.G.P.; Fjeldså, J.; Lei, F. (2017). "Complete taxon sampling of the avian genus Pica (magpies) reveals ancient relictual populations and synchronous Late-Pleistocene demographic expansion across the Northern Hemisphere". Journal of Avian Biology. 49 (2): jav–01612. doi: 10.1111/jav.01612 .
8. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (January 2021). "Crows, mudnesters, birds-of-paradise". IOC World Bird List Version 11.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
9. AviList Core Team (2025). "AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025". doi: 10.2173/avilist.v2025 . Retrieved 2026-02-19.
10. Kryukov, A. P. (2025). "Genetic variation and phylogeography of the magpie's genus Pica in the Holarctic". Vavilovskii Zhurnal Genetiki I Selektsii. 29 (4): 578–593. doi:10.18699/vjgb-25-61. ISSN   2500-0462. PMC   12280223 . PMID   40697942.
11. Seguí, B. (2001). "A new species of Pica (Aves: Corvidae) from the Plio-Pleistocene of Mallorca, Balearic Islands (Western Mediterranean)". Geobios. 34 (3): 339–347. Bibcode:2001Geobi..34..339S. doi:10.1016/s0016-6995(01)80080-2. ISSN   0016-6995.
12. Boev, Zlatozar (2021-06-01). "An Early Pleistocene magpie (Pica praepica sp. n.) (Corvidae Leach, 1820) from Bulgaria". Bulletin of the Natural History Museum - Plovdiv. 6: 51–59.