Hi, my name is Liam here from the Shot of Wildlife and in this video I'm going to tell you everything you need to know about the Magpie. Let's begin. The Eurasian Magpie is an unmistakable bird belonging to the Crow family. From a distance they look to be white and black, but on close inspection they're dark of feathers and a glimmer with iridescent blue and green. Magpie's grow to weigh from 180 to 270 grams and can have a wingspan of 52 to 62 centimeters. They also have a very long tail compared to their bodies, but when spread out is shaped like a diamond. They're currently around 600,000 pairs of Magpie's in the UK and they have a large distribution across all of Europe and they're also found in Asia and some northern parts of Africa. Magpie's are extremely intelligent, perhaps the most intelligent bird on the planet and use this superior knowledge to source a wide range of foods. They would eat everything from nuts, seeds and grains to small birds, reptiles, insects, eggs, small mammals and various carrion. What they cannot eat straight away is sometimes cash away for eating later. Magpie's can start breeding at one year of age, but they often wait until their second year and spend their first year roaming in small flocks with other young birds. When they do pair up they will stay with the same mate for life and remain together throughout the year. Nesting starts in April when the pair build a dome-shaped nest high off the ground often in the fork of a tree. This nest is made of twigs and cemented together with mud. Once the nest is completely built, the female will lay between three and six green eggs that are speckled with brown marks. These eggs take around 21 days to hatch and then the chicks take a further 27 days to fledge. A lot of the chicks that hatch do not survive to fledgeing with roughly one out of every three dying from starvation. Once the chicks have fledged they stay with their parents as a family group for several more weeks whilst they learn how to find food for themselves. Magpie's survival rate throughout the first year can be as low as 22%, but once a bird makes it through these first 12 months it has an average life expectancy around three and a half years. However, there has been a record of a wild magpie surviving to more than 21 years and this bird didn't die of natural causes but was shot so could have lived even longer. As mentioned earlier magpies are extremely intelligent. They have been shown to use tools to understand basic mathematics and to show that they have self-recognition. Some research suggests that their intelligence may be on par with that of the great apes and some scientists believe they are capable of both grief and imagination. One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl and four for a boy. Magpies are the subject of lots of superstitions but that short poem is the beginning of probably the most famous one. There's a long list of predictions that will happen if you see specific numbers of magpies and despite the changes slightly throughout the centuries, seeing one magpie alone has always been a sign of bad luck. But don't worry, if you see one magpie there are a few things that you can do to combat the bad luck, including spitting over your shoulder three times, saying, good morning Mr Magpie, how is your lady wolf today and flapping your arms to imitate a second magpie. I haven't tried any of these but if you do let me know how it affects your luck. Well there you go, that's everything you need to know about the magpie. If you did enjoy this video check out one of these other two British wildlife videos and subscribe to my channel for future content. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.