Magpie (Pica hudsonia) ~ How We Use Our Voice
My choice for ‘Best Colorado Bird’ seems to change with every season. For a long time i favoured the Peregrine Falcon for his speed and power. Next i fell in love with the mountain hummingbirds; floating jewels of the pine forests. As of now i fancy the Magpie. Magpies are common. There is nothing splendid about their colouration. Yet i could watch them for hours. The way they move is simply captivating… their walk echoes the gait of an ancient therapod. i love the expansion of feathers leaping out from wing and tail as they swoop in to land on a tree. But what i love most of all is the way they talk. Like all corvids (crows, ravens, jackdaws, bluejays), magpies speak different languages. Alarm calls, assembly calls, scolding calls, distress calls, and many others are used in its repertoire. Magpies also imitate other species in their vocalizations, and a youtube search will bring up all kinds of stories of Magpies who enjoy hanging around a human companion and lear