Magpies are birds of various species of the family Corvidae. Like other members of their family, they are widely considered to be intelligent creatures. The Eurasian magpie, for instance, is thought to rank among the world's most intelligent creatures, and is one of the few nonmammalian species able to recognize itself in a mirror test. Magpies have shown the ability to make and use tools, imitate human speech, grieve, play games, and work in teams. They are particularly well known for their songs and were once popular as cagebirds. In addition to other members of the genus Pica, corvids considered magpies are in the genera Cissa, Urocissa, and Cyanopica.
Corvidae is a cosmopolitan family of oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, rooks, magpies, jackdaws, jays, treepies, choughs, and nutcrackers. In colloquial English, they are known as the crow family or corvids. Currently, 139 species are included in this family. The genus Corvus containing 50 species makes up over a third of the entire family. Corvids (ravens) are the largest passerines.
The Taiwan blue magpie, also called the Taiwan magpie, Formosan blue magpie, or the "long-tailed mountain lady", is a bird species in the crow family. It is endemic to Taiwan.
The Torresian crow, also called the Australian crow or Papuan crow, is a passerine bird in the crow family native to the north and west of Australia and nearby islands in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. The species has a black plumage, beak and mouth with white irises. The base of the feathers on the head and neck are white. The Torresian crow is slightly larger with a more robust bill than the morphologically similar little crow.
The red-billed blue magpie is a species of bird (magpie) in the crow family, Corvidae. It is about the same size as the Eurasian magpie, but has a much longer tail, one of the longest of any corvid. It is 65–68 cm (25.5–27 in) long and weighs 196–232 g (6.9–8.2 oz).
Cissa is a genus of relatively short-tailed magpies, sometimes known as hunting cissas, that reside in the forests of tropical and subtropical southeast Asia and adjacent regions. The four species are quite similar with bright red bills, primarily green plumage, black mask, and rufous wings.
The Sri Lanka whistling thrush is a whistling thrush in the family Muscicapidae. It is a resident endemic bird in Sri Lanka.
The slaty-legged crake or banded crake is a waterbird in the rail and crake family, Rallidae.
The mountain hawk-eagle or Hodgson's hawk-eagle, is a large bird of prey native to Asia. The latter name is in reference to the naturalist, Brian Houghton Hodgson, who described the species after collecting one himself in the Himalayas. A less widely recognized common English name is the feather-toed eagle. Like all eagles, it is in the family Accipitridae. Its feathered tarsus marks this species as a member of the subfamily Aquilinae. It is a confirmed breeding species in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, from India, Nepal through Bangladesh to Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam and Japan, although its distribution could be wider still as breeding species. Like other Asian hawk-eagles, this species was earlier treated under the genera of Spizaetus but genetic studies have shown this group to be paraphyletic, resulting in the Old World members being placed in Nisaetus and separated from the New World species. As is typical of hawk-eagles, the mountain hawk-eagle is a forest dwelling opportunistic predator who readily varies its prey selection between birds, mammals and reptiles along with other vertebrates. Although classified currently as a least-concern species due its persistence over a rather wide distribution, this species is often quite rare and scarce and seems to be decreasing, especially in response to large-scale habitat degradation and deforestation.
The orange-billed babbler, also known as Ceylon rufous babbler or Sri Lankan rufous babbler, is a member of the family Leiothrichidae.
The ashy-headed laughingthrush is a member of the family Leiothrichidae. The laughingthrushes are a large family of Old World passerine birds characterised by soft fluffy plumage. These are birds of tropical areas, with the greatest variety in southeast Asia.
The brown-capped babbler is a member of the family Pellorneidae.
The dull-blue flycatcher is a small passerine bird in the flycatcher family, Muscicapidae. It was previously included in the genus Muscicapa.
The white-shouldered ibis is a large species of bird in the family Threskiornithidae. It is native to small regions of Southeast Asia, and is considered to be one of the most threatened bird species on this part of the continent.
Legge's flowerpecker or the white-throated flowerpecker, is a small passerine bird. It is an endemic resident breeder in Sri Lanka. It is named after the Australian ornithologist William Vincent Legge.
The Indochinese green magpie, also known as the yellow-breasted magpie, is a small colorful bird native to the forests of China all the way to Vietnam.
The Javan green magpie is a passerine bird in the crow family, Corvidae. This critically endangered species is endemic to montane forests on the Indonesian island of Java. It formerly included the Bornean green magpie as a subspecies, in which case the "combined" species was known as the short-tailed magpie.
The yellow-billed blue-magpie , or gold-billed magpie, is a passerine bird in the family Corvidae, along with crows and jays. It forms a superspecies with the Taiwan blue magpie and the red-billed blue magpie. The species' range covers the northern parts of the Indian Subcontinent, including the lower Himalayan foothills, with a disjunct population in Vietnam.
Layard's palm squirrel or flame-striped jungle squirrel is a species of rodent in the family Sciuridae endemic to Sri Lanka. The validity of the subspecies F. l. dravidianus based on a single specimen from the southern tip of India has been questioned, and is probably a juvenile F. sublineatus. Known as මූකලන් ලේනා in Sinhala.
The Bornean green magpie is a passerine bird in the crow family, Corvidae. It is endemic to montane forests on the southeast Asian island of Borneo. It was formerly included as a subspecies of the Javan green magpie, but under the common name Short-tailed Green Magpie. Uniquely among the green magpies, the Bornean green magpie has whitish eyes.
