Morning Hill' The Song of the Magpie Cavan Brown reflects on Australian spirituality by tracing the 'songlines' of the magpie. The magpie is Australian but its name is not. This bird was named by the early settlers after the magpie of Europe, a black and white bird belonging to the Corvidae family and therefore related to the crows and ravens. Australian magpies belong to the family of Cracticidae along with the butcherbirds and currawongs.
Magpies prefer to live in extended families.
In Western Australia, where things are generally more gregarious, the family may extend up to 24 birds. In the East, magpies think that 10 is enough. Depending on the size of the family, the magpies claim a territory ranging from 2 to 18 hectares, which means that the wooded areas of Australia and the leafy suburbs are neatly divided up into magpie blocks. The magpie's outstanding feature is its song. It is one of the premier Australian songbirds.