Oriental Magpie

Oriental Magpie (Pica serica) is a long-tailed black-and-white magpie with iridescent wings and tail, native to eastern continental Asia and naturalised in Japan. Body shape, bill structure, plumage pattern and voice provide the strongest field characters. Age, sex and season may alter its appearance, so identification should combine several features and careful direct field comparisons with similar species in the same habitat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It occupies farmland, woodland edges and settlements, taking insects, seeds, fruit, carrion and small animals and building a large domed stick nest in a tree. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds gathering where food is concentrated. Japanese records place it within the country's documented avifauna as a resident, migrant or visitor (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Japan occurrence records).