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Eurasian Magpie | Pica pica
Ekster | Urraca común
The familiar black-and-white, long-tailed magpie is at home in the region only in the north-east: in Iraq and Syria. In north-west Africa it is replaced by Maghreb Magpie and in the Asir mountains by Asir Magpie; elsewhere in Arabia and North Africa it is a rare vagrant.
Voice
A harsh, rattling chak-chak-chak, especially in alarm, and various softer chattering and guttural sounds.
Recording: Esperanza Poveda — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
40–51 cm, of which 20–30 cm is tail. Black with a green and purplish-blue gloss on the long, graduated tail and the wings, a white belly, large white scapular patches and a greyish-white band across the rump. The face is fully feathered and black. In flight the large white patches on the primaries stand out. Sexes alike; juveniles have a short tail and less gloss.
Confusion species
Maghreb Magpie (Pica mauritanica) and Asir Magpie (Pica asirensis) live far from its range within the region. Maghreb Magpie has a blue patch of bare skin behind the eye, less white and a black rump; Asir Magpie is darker, with restricted white on the scapulars and a black rump.
Habitat
Open farmland with trees, orchards, riverine woodland along the Tigris and Euphrates, villages, city parks and gardens; in Kurdistan up into the mountain valleys. Nests in a domed ball of twigs high in a tree.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the habitats of North Africa and the Middle East.
Range and movements
In Iraq common in the north, in Kurdistan and around Mosul, and along the Tigris and Euphrates south to Baghdad; in hard winters birds wander further south. In Syria mainly in the north and north-east. Elsewhere a rare vagrant: a few records from Saudi Arabia, Oman, the Emirates, Lebanon and Israel, and in January 2026 the first confirmed record for Qatar (Al Thakhira). From Egypt there are records near Port Said in 2023–2024 of unclear origin. Beyond the region from Europe and Turkey through Iran and Central Asia to eastern Siberia.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In the towns and villages of Iraqi Kurdistan, such as Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, it is an everyday bird of parks and orchards. In the Gulf states every magpie deserves a photograph and a report.
Conservation status
Not globally threatened. No specific threats are known in the region; locally it is persecuted as a nest robber.
Scientific name
Pica pica | (Linnaeus, 1758)
Linnaeus described the species in 1758 as Corvus pica; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Pica was introduced in 1760 by Brisson. Pica is the Latin word for the magpie. The specific name repeats the genus name. The specimen the first description was based on came from Uppsala, Sweden.