Grey Magpie (scientific name: cyanopica cyanus): A medium-sized bird belonging to the order Passeriformes and the family Crowidae. It resembles a magpie, but is slightly smaller. Body length 33-40 cm. The mouth and feet are black, the forehead to the back of the neck is black, the back is gray, the wings and tail are grayish blue, and the outer end of the primary flight feathers is white. The tail is long , convex with white end spots , and the underparts are grayish white. The lateral tail feathers are shorter than half the central tail feathers.
Its natural habitats are open pine and broad-leaved forests, parks and urban areas. Omnivorous, but mainly animal food, mainly eating hemiptera bugs, Coleoptera insects and larvae, and also eating some plant fruits and seeds.
It is found on the Spanish Peninsula, France, northern Mongolia, the Amur River valley to the Korean Peninsula, and Japan. China is northeast to north China, west to Inner Mongolia, Lu'an City, Anhui Province, Moon Island, Shanxi, Gansu, Sichuan and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River to Fujian.
Grey magpies move in pairs during the breeding season, and in small groups, sometimes in large flocks of up to dozens. In autumn and winter, it is active in sparse forests, secondary forests and plantations in the semi-mountainous and foothill areas, and sometimes even near farmland and settlements. Often shuttle between the jungle jumps up and down or fly around, flying quickly, the wings flap faster, but do not fly far to fall, do not fly long distances, do not stay in one place for a long time, but wander around. In the event of a disturbance, it quickly dispersed and then gathered together. Both the activity and the flight are constantly chirping, the chirping is monotonous and noisy, and each other is connected by the call and maintains the consistency of the group. The northern subspecies mostly inhabit coniferous forests and move in large groups towards the plains in winter; the Yangtze River Basin is distributed everywhere, and the gray magpies in this area are often found in places of human activity, and there is no obvious movement. Grey magpies usually prefer to move in small groups, often mixing with myna, squid and other small crows. The song is loud and rough, without rhythm. The northern subspecies tend to eat pests in the forest, while the southern subspecies are highly omnivorous.
The grey magpie is one of the most famous beneficial birds in China. There are often more than ten or dozens of groups, shuttling through the woods, not like to stay for a long time, like guerrilla activities, suddenly flying in groups here, and then suddenly flying elsewhere. Not very afraid of people, when frightened, they scattered. Grey magpies are heterogeneous birds, but mainly animal food, mainly eating hemiptera bugs, Coleoptera walking beetles, golden needle worms, goldenrods, golden turtle shells, lepidoptera borer moths, leaf moths, nocturnal moths, hymenopteran ants, vespas, dipteranital houseflies, flower flies and other insects and larvae, and also eat the fruits and seeds of some arborvitae.
Like magpies, grey magpies have been considered auspicious birds for thousands of years, but like magpies, they are also very fierce and aggressive birds, often stealing birds and eggs from other birds. The gray magpie differs from the magpie in that it is small in size, and the magpie moves on the ground in a manner similar to that of a crow, occasionally jumping forward, while the grey magpie generally jumps like a sparrow and rarely walks.
Grey magpies can prey on species pests in orchards and plantations, and there are many successful examples of the introduction of grey magpies to protect economic forests in some places where china's economic forests are more concentrated.
Grey magpies breed from May to July. Many nests are found in secondary forests and plantations, but also in villages and towns and on roadside sidewalk trees, and have the habit of using old nests, sometimes using old nests abandoned by crows. It usually nests among the branches of medium-height trees such as poplar trees, mountain butter trees, elms, and young pine trees. The nest is 2-15 m high from the ground. The nest is relatively simple, shallow disc-shaped or platform-shaped, mainly composed of thin dead branches, interspersed with grass stems, grass leaves, and inner pads with moss, leaves, hemp, bark fibers, cattle hair, roe deer hair, pig hair and other animal hair. Male and female parent birds build a nest together, and the size of the nest is 17-18 cm in outer diameter, 11-12 cm in inner diameter, 20 cm in height and 0-7 cm deep. Each clutch lays 4-9 eggs, mostly 6-7. The eggs are oval in shape, grey, off-white, light green or grey-green with brown spots. The eggs are 19-21 mm in size× 24-28 mm in size and weigh 5.5-7 g. The female incubates the eggs for 15 ± 1 day. The chicks are late in adulthood, and the male and female parent birds co-breed the chicks, and the nesting period is 19±1 day.
Grey magpie nesting is carried out by both male and female birds, incubating the eggs of the female birds and feeding the young birds together with the male and female parent birds. The tree species of grey magpies nesting in Beijing, China are mostly tall poplar trees and locusts. Nests are mostly built at the intersection of the main lateral branches in the upper part of the canopy, and some nests are built at the lower side branches and trunks. The nest is 3 to 12 m above the ground.
The shape of the gray magpie's nest is platform-shaped, slightly concave, the main components of the nest are dead branches, dead weeds, plastic sheets, pier strips, and the main components in the nest are small twigs, twine, fiber, animal hair, feathers, etc. 4. Gray magpies lay an average of about 7 eggs per nest, and the eggs of gray magpies are hatched after they are laid, and the average weight of eggs is 5g. Observed during the brooding period, when someone goes up to the tree to measure the weight of the chicks, the gray magpie makes a "chirp, chirp" chirp. The other gray magpies around them flew together, often "chirping, chirping" in unison, indicating that the gray magpies have the characteristics of group perching, intraspecific mutual assistance and flocking.
During the brooding period, in order to keep the nest clean, when the chicks excrete feces, the parent birds often catch the outside of the nest with their mouths to make the chicks grow strongly. Adult grey magpies generally move during the summer months at dawn. In terms of feeding time when brooding, the grey magpie adult bird has to feed the young bird once every 10 minutes, and its range of activity is about 3 kilometers in all directions.