Biologists already knew the corvid family–it includes crows, ravens, rooks, magpies and jackdaws–to be among the smartest of all birds. But this remarkable piece of behavior–it features in ...

WATFORD CITY, N.D. — “The magpies are back,” my dad said casually in conversation while we were driving somewhere. Or maybe he was in the middle of putting honey in his tea at my kitchen ...

With their large size, bold pied plumage, and fondness for open areas, black-billed magpies are easily seen. They hop and walk on the ground with a swaggering and confident gait. Monotypic.

Despite epithets like “bird-brain,” our feathered friends are actually ... For the record, the magpies that [Hans] is training are very intelligent and strikingly beautiful birds who delight ...