Weird looking magpie, then again I thought they were native to Australia so I may have only seen the one type.

It's hard to tell in those pictures, but the magpie actually has three colors, white, black and blue. The tail and back half of the wings are blue like a blue jay.

that bird has balls!

Your monitor must have very high resolution.

There's a fella who exercises a bald eagle over our valley from time to time. Massive creature it is. First time I saw it gliding about overhead and suddenly dropping out of sight, I had no idea what it was. Thought it was a much smaller bird, but closer to...then when I rounded the bend in the road and saw it come in from the west towards its handler, who was stood on the rocks at the side of the road where the valley drops away into hillside, I realised it was fucking huge.

One time I was stood further up the hillside on the other side of the road, watching the bird glide and swoop about in the valley below me, I saw this single magpie fly out from somewhere and seem to fly right at the eagle. It'd do these weird midair feints at it then dart away and come back again. Amazing to watch. I gather it had a nest nearby that it was seeking to protect. Was like watching a guy standing in front of a tank.

There's over a dozen different kinds of Magpies, around the world.

HLJ's bird must be part Oxpecker.

The ones here are native BeltNah.

Perhaps magpie is a generic name for a predominantly black and white bird world wide.

They're not all black and white.

it was just a theory.

Both the birds in the main IotD and HLJ's photos are European Magpies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magpie , well I have learnt something for the day.

When I was a kid, I used to see this type of magpie.:rolleyes:

One more of the same pair, and another pair that look like an Eagle and a crow/Raven.

Hung; Great pics man!

Corvids all regularily land on animals for bugs. I have no problem believing that deer pic. Deer also have a huge number of ticks on them that they can do nothing about and they are tormented by them. This one knew the drill.

That deer and magpie look delicious. (And yeah we have a lot of those magpies here in Vail, CO.




BLACK BIRD PIE
3 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 cup very warm water (almost hot)

Mix little biscuit dough. Knead 'til tough and dry - roll with rolling pin 'til very thin and cut into 2-inch strips.

Clean birds according to INFORMATION.

BIRDS:
25 birds well covered with water
3/4 lb. venison - optional

Cook until tender (at least 2 hours or 1 hour for chicken). Salt and pepper to taste. When birds are tender, keep broth at a rolling boil and drop in pastry - piece by piece, shaking pot constantly to keeep pastry pieces separated. When all is in pot, place cover on and let cook for approximately 10 minutes. Let set for about ten more minutes. Then eat.

If you are unfamiliar with making pastry from scratch, you can substitute canned biscuits (roll individually with rolling pin). Or buy frozen pastry from bakery. If you use canned biscuits, let set for one-half hour and roll or flatten again to thinness desired.

Or you can use flour tortillas cut in strips and chicken and have chicken & dumplings. :bolt:
BTW. I have a deer neck roast in pressure cooked now.