Guile On The Wing The Black-Billed Magpie, Artful And Aggressive, Has Defied Human Persecution To Thrive On Wooded Streamsides And Sagebrush Grasslands East Of The Cascades.

It’s a sure sign of autumn when gangs of black-and-white magpies call noisy challenges to each other, swooping down in a daring fly-by to steal dog food out of a dish. Young male magpies spend autumn and winter proving their bravery in death-defying stunts to win social rank and to impress potential mates. “They take horrible chances in what look like machismo displays of courage and derring-do,” says Charles Trost, a behavioral ecologist at Idaho State University in Pocatello. “Magpies are fairly agile and hard to catch, but they’ve even been seen pulling the tails of weasels. It’s almost as if they’re trying to see how far they can go.”

Their antics seem zany, but young magpies with high standing have better chances to win food, mates and good nesting spots. They may travel in autumn more than 300 miles from their birthplace, seeking good territory. The black-billed magpie, artful and aggressive, has defied human persecution to thrive on wooded streamsides and sagebrush grasslands east of the Cascades. With a 2-foot wingspan, iridescent plumage and extra-long tails, they’re derided as “crows in tuxedoes,” shot for bounties and poisoned by chemicals. But in the Inland Northwest, they’re moving into fast-spreading groves of Russian olive trees, surviving by extreme wariness and a certain gift for improvisation. They’ve been known to invade the suburbs, too.

Magpies are among the smartest birds on the wing. They share linguistic talent with their cousins, the jays, ravens and crows.

Chirping, chattering or shrieking, they communicate in a wide repertoire of distinct calls. People have been enthralled by such talkative ways since Roman times, when the long-tailed birds were kept as pet watchdogs.

“At various times I’ve hand-reared magpies, but they come out mindwarped,” Trost said. “It’s more meaningful to try to understand their natural social behavior.” Trost has observed magpies in southeast Idaho’s Portneuf River valley for 16 years. There, along emergent springs, colonies of magpies build their 6-foot domed mud-and-twig nests in dense thickets of Russian olives and stands of tall willows, Siberian elms, water birches, box elder and buck hawthorn. Researchers have found magpie behavior intricate enough to rival the adaptive abilities of their brainy cousins, the ravens. Though Trost ranks among world experts on magpies, “I’m still trying to figure them out,” he says. “The more I watch them, the more unanswered questions there are.” Magpies are masters of social intrigue. Supposedly monogamous, they do tend to keep the same mate year after year. Yet males often flirt with strangers behind their partners’ backs. And females have affairs while the male is off working to support the nest.

Magpies sometimes divorce if a nest fails to produce offspring.

Adult pairs cooperate to get food. “They’ll steal a ground squirrel right out of the talons of an eagle,” Trost said. “They’re really bodacious. An eagle doesn’t have any sense of humor.”

Young magpies stand tall in trees to declare their spring turf, ruffling wing feathers to display a white badge of rank. They signal aggressive intent by winking and showing off a small orange marking beside a flashing eye.

“If that doesn’t work,” Trost says, “they duke it out.” If one gets thrown down on his back, others come to pull the tail of the guy on top. They’re apparently buddies with the one on the bottom. I think they have allegiances.”

In the magpie’s first year, white feathers on the showy wing patch distinguish an individual bird.

“These birds are very keen on detail, and can recognize each other by their markings,” Trost said. “Their basic colors are rather dull, so they go crazy on the iridescence, communicating with this flashy black and white.”

The glossy black feathers can appear blue, purple, bronze or green in different light. Young magpies have up to 12 white feathers; adults only 10.

They conduct ceremonies that give every appearance of a funeral for a fallen comrade. A dead magpie, or even a few black feathers, are enough to start them off. Magpies assemble in a nearby tree, starting a commotion to alert the flock. Then, one by one, they fly down to stand beside the body - or the feathers - to deliver a brief oration while the others listen. They only do this once. Then, everybody leaves.

The strange ceremonies are similar to the behavior when mobbing a predator, Trost said.

Though scientists find magpie society fascinating, duck conservationists are not so captivated. Magpies have a reputation for being efficient nest-robbers, even though mink, foxes, raccoons, skunks, hawks and crows also take their share of duck eggs and nestlings.

Some magpies may learn to specialize in stealing eggs. If so, Trost recommends planting bad-tasting eggs in decoy nests. “They’re smart enough to learn from aversion therapy,” he said.

According to research by biologist Rolf L. Johnson, now with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, magpies occasionally ate the eggs and young of other birds in the Palouse region, but effects on the bird population were negligible.

“Unfortunately,” Johnson said, “the magpie’s bad reputation has been based largely on hearsay and reports of isolated incidents rather than any study of the birds’ habits.”

Wandering the countryside in noisy flocks, visiting feedlots, farmlands, backyard gardens and bird feeders, magpies gathered grains and fruits, insects and mice, carrion, roadkill, food scraps and even dog food to feed their young or to hoard later, Johnson said.

But, he noted, the idea that magpies posed a serious threat to game birds or song birds was “simply not true.”