If you've not seen them yet, you've definitely heard them squawking their distinctive "chachacha" from early morning to night, or else hopping about on the ground scouring for food and bits and pieces for their massive ball-like nests. Magpies are as much a part of Beijing as the Forbidden City (紫禁城, zǐ jìn chéng) and Peking duck (北京烤鴨, běi jīng kǎo yā). But how much do you really know about them?

First, there's the name. In Chinese, magpies are known as 喜鵲 (xǐ què), which roughly translates to "bird of happiness (吉祥鳥, jí xiáng niǎo)". It's believed magpies bring good luck and fortune (吉祥和好運, jí xiáng hé hǎo yùn). The birds even have a special place in Chinese folklore, being the birds that form the bridge (架起鵲橋, jià qǐ què qiáo) during Qixi Festival (七夕節, qī xī jié), to reunite two separated lovers.

The magpies you'll commonly see in Beijing are Oriental Magpies (東方喜鵲, dōng fāng xǐ què). Once considered a subspecies of the Eurasian magpie, Terry Townshend, a birding expert and founder of Birding Beijing, says the bird has recently been given full species status by taxonomic authorities.

Oriental Magpies have black and white plumage with slightly blue tails (羽毛黑白相間, 尾羽略帶藍色 yǔ máo hēi báixiāngjiān,wěiyǔ lüè dài lán sè), Townshend continues, and are not to be confused with another Beijing magpie resident – the Azure-winged Magpie (藍羽喜鵲, lán yǔ xǐ què), which is gray with a blue tail and black on the head. There's also a third species that can be found in the mountains and larger parks, the Red-billed Blue Magpie (紅嘴藍尾喜鵲, hóng zuǐ lán wěi xǐ què), which has a spectacularly long tail and bright red bill.

Townshend adds Oriental Magpies are very adaptable, and tend to be found in higher densities around human habitation, as these scavengers are very fond of the food we throw away. That being said, they aren't always scavengers, but predators (捕食者, bǔ shí zhě) as well.

Along with eating just about anything they can get their talons or beaks on, Oriental Magpies are known to sneak into the nests of other birds around spring, stealing eggs or chicks to eat, according to an article on the birds from CGTN. This sometimes puts them at odds with the city's other scavenger birds, carrion crows (食腐鳥烏鴉, shí fǔ niǎo wū yā). You might see the two birds scuffling from time to time in the treetops.

Also like crows, magpies are incredibly smart. It's believed by some researchers that magpies are some of the most intelligent of all birds due to them having a brain-to-body mass ratio that's only outmatched by humans and equal to that of great apes, according to Encyclopedia Brittancia.

Thanks to this intelligence, they have an interesting array of habits. They usually forage for food on the ground but have been witnessed burying food for later use, and even holding "funerals (葬禮, zàng lǐ)" for dead magpies – in which they'll encircle the dead bird and mournfully squawk (哀嚎, āi háo).

So Beijing's noisiest bird (最吵鬧的鳥, zuì chǎo nào de niǎo) is also one of its smartest (最聰明的鳥, zuì cōng míng de niǎo), hopping on the treetops and swooping over buildings as it lives amongst us as a scavenger and sometimes predator. Despite all that squawking and ruckus, though, perhaps the Oriental Magpie can bring a little luck, too.

來源：The Beijinger
編輯：萬月英