True Magpies
Pica
Pica is a genus of seven species of birds in the family Corvidae in both the New World and the Old. It is one of several corvid genera whose members are known as magpies. Pica have long tails and predominantly black and white plumage, with iridescent blue, green, purple and bronze colours on the wings and tail in good light. After Corvus, this genus is the second most widespread within the Corvidae family, being distributed across Eurasia, north Africa, and western North America. Molecular phylogeny suggests that Pica is most closely related to nutcrackers (Nucifraga), jackdaws (Coloeus) and crows and ravens (Corvus).
7 branches of this genus, most-observed first · about 7 known species
Eurasian Magpie
speciesPica pica
Black-billed Magpie
speciesPica hudsonia
Oriental Magpie
speciesPica serica
Yellow-billed Magpie
speciesPica nuttalli
Maghreb Magpie
speciesPica mauritanica
Black-rumped Magpie
speciesPica bottanensis
Asir Magpie
speciesPica asirensis
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the old herbals & bestiaries
Worksop Bestiary
Anonymous · 1185 · p.58
Itinerary, Voyage or Ship-travel to the East or Portuguese Indies
Jan Huyghen van Linschoten · 1595 · p.199
Itinerary: Voyage to the East or Portuguese Indies
Jan Huyghen van Linschoten · 1596 · p.161
Kircher: China Illustrata (1667)
Athanasius Kircher · 1667 · p.257
Kircher: China Illustrata (1667)
Athanasius Kircher · 1667 · p.254
Les Indes Orientales et Occidentales, et autres lieuX : représentés en très-belles figur...
Hooghe, Romeyn de, prentgraveur · 1710 · p.42
The Malay Archipelago: The Land of the Orang-Utan and the Bird of Paradise
Alfred Russel Wallace · 1869 · p.592
Anton Reichenow — Vogelbilder aus fernen Zonen: Papageien (1878)
Anton Reichenow · 1878 · p.57
Memorable Embassies to Japan
Arnoldus Montanus · 1669 · p.207
Drie scheeps-togten na het goud-rijke koningrijk Guiana, in America geleegen, door den Engelssen ridder Wal...
Hakluyt, Richard · 1706 · p.36
Exotic Pleasures (Persia and Asia observations)
Engelbert Kaempfer · 1712 · p.637
The Embassy of the Dutch East India Company to the Tartar Cham
Johan Nieuhof · 1665 · p.447
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Pica in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 8318.