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The Australian magpie (''Cracticus tibicen'') is a medium-sized black and white passerine bird native to Australia and southern New Guinea. Although once considered to be three separate species, it is now considered to be one, with nine recognised subspecies. A member of the Artamidae, the Australian magpie is classified in the butcherbird genus ''Cracticus'' and is most closely related to the black butcherbird (''C. quoyi''). It is not, however, related to the European magpie, which is a corvid. The adult Australian magpie is a fairly robust bird ranging from 37 to 43 cm (14.5–17 in) in length, with distinctive black and white plumage, gold brown eyes and a solid wedge-shaped bluish-white and black bill. The male and female are similar in appearance, and can be distinguished by differences in back markings. With its long legs, the Australian magpie walks rather than waddles or hops and spends much time on the ground. Described as one of Australia's most accomplished songbirds, the Australian magpie has an array of complex vocalisations. It is omnivorous, with the bulk of its varied diet made up of invertebrates. It is generally sedentary and territorial throughout its range. Common and widespread, it has adapted well to human habitation and is a familiar bird of parks, gardens and farmland in Australia and New Guinea. This species is commonly fed by households around the country, but in spring a small minority of breeding magpies (almost always males) become aggressive and swoop and attack those who approach their nests. Magpies were introduced into New Zealand in the 1860s but have subsequently been accused of displacing native birds and are now treated as a pest species. Introductions also occurred in the Solomon Islands and Fiji, where the birds are not considered an invasive species. The Australian magpie is the mascot of several Australian sporting teams, most notably the Collingwood Magpies. ==Taxonomy== The Australian magpie was first described by English ornithologist John Latham in 1802 as ''Coracias tibicen'', the type collected in the Port Jackson region. Its specific epithet derived from the Latin ''tibicen'' "flute-player" or "piper" in reference to the bird's melodious call.〔Higgins ''et al.'', p. 579.〕 An early recorded vernacular name is ''piping poller'', written on a painting by Thomas Watling, one of a group known collectively as the Port Jackson Painter, sometime between 1788 and 1792.〔Kaplan, p. 3.〕 ''Tarra-won-nang'',〔 or ''djarrawunang'', ''wibung'', and ''marriyang'' were names used by the local Eora and Darug inhabitants of the Sydney Basin. ''Booroogong'' and ''garoogong'' were Wiradjuri words, and ''carrak'' was a Jardwadjali term from Victoria. Among the Kamilaroi, it is ''burrugaabu'', ''galalu'', or ''guluu''. It was known as ''Warndurla'' among the Yindjibarndi people of the central and western Pilbara. Other names used include ''piping crow-shrike'', ''piper'', ''maggie'', ''flute-bird'' and ''organ-bird''.〔 The term ''bell-magpie'' was proposed to help distinguish it from the European magpie but failed to gain wide acceptance.〔Jones, p. 12.〕 The bird was named for its similarity in colouration to the European magpie; it was a common practice for early settlers to name plants and animals after European counterparts.〔 However, the European magpie is a member of the Corvidae, while its Australian counterpart is placed in the Artamidae family (although both are members of a broad corvid lineage). The Australian magpie's affinities with butcherbirds and currawongs were recognised early on and the three genera were placed in the family Cracticidae in 1914 by John Albert Leach after he had studied their musculature. American ornithologists Charles Sibley and Jon Ahlquist recognised the close relationship between woodswallows and the butcherbirds in 1985, and combined them into a Cracticini clade, which became the family Artamidae. The Australian magpie had been placed in its own genus ''Gymnorhina'', but several authorities, Storr in 1952 and later authors including Christidis and Boles in their 2008 official checklist, place it in the butcherbird genus ''Cracticus'', giving rise to its current binomial name, arguing that its adaptation to ground-living is not enough to consider it a separate genus.〔 Evidence confirming this was published in a 2013 molecular study, which showed that it was the sister taxon to the black butcherbird (''C. quoyi''). The ancestor to the two species is thought to have split from the other butcherbirds between 8.3 and 4.2 million years ago, during the late Miocene to early Pliocene, while the two species themselves diverged sometime during the Pliocene (5.8–3.0 million years ago). The Australian magpie was subdivided into three species in the literature for much of the twentieth century—the black-backed magpie (''C. tibicen''), the white-backed magpie (''C. hypoleuca''), and the western magpie (''C. dorsalis''). They were later noted to hybridise readily where their territories crossed, with hybrid grey or striped-backed magpies being quite common. This resulted in them being reclassified as one species by Julian Ford in 1969, with most recent authors following suit.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Australian magpie」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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