The Much Maligned Magpie Trivia Quiz

Answer: Black and White

It's a striking bird, yet almost everyone seems to hate the magpie. At my workplace, a baby magpie got trapped on top of an uplighter in our reception area, and was unable to navigate its way out. I was horrified to hear people saying things like "Leave it there to die.

It's a magpie after all". You could tell the bird was in distress and I felt really sorry for it. You'll be pleased (or otherwise) to learn that one of our engineers managed to get it out unharmed after about six hours!

Answer: Omnivorous

An omnivore is a species of animal that eats both plants and meat as its primary food source.

Carnivores eat primarily other animals' flesh.

Herbivores eat a plant based diet.

You didn't go for the other one...did you?

Answer: Crow

A member of the Corvidae family, the magpie is a passerine (perching) bird which counts crows, jays and ravens amongst its relations.

Not the most popular of birds, the magpie has, in recent years, been blamed for the dwindling numbers of songbirds, due to its tendency to steal eggs and youngsters from other birds' nests. In actual fact, the magpie's preferred diet is generally roadkill, seeds and insects, only resorting to scavenging when there is little else to feed their own offspring. The RSPB commissioned the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) recently to establish whether magpies COULD be part of the problem, but the diminishing population of songbirds remained the same in both places abundant with the black and white beasts, as well as areas that had none.

Believe it or not, in various parts of the world, magpies eat many harmful insects, such as the scarab beetle in Western Australia, and therefore should be given a lot more respect than they actually get.

Answer: A Parliament

According to Washington's Smithsonian National Zoological Park, a group of magpies is called a parliament due to the birds' habit of "forming large assemblies during which one bird will appear to orate at length".

Most people know that the correct term for a group of owls is a parliament, but the term is also applied to magpies.

It is also common, in Britain at least, for a group of magpies to be called a "tidings".

A gaggle of course refers to a group of geese.

An ostentation refers to a group of peacocks.

A school refers to a group of whales and has nothing whatsoever to do with our feathered friends!

Answer: False

There are several species of bird where the male incubates their mate's eggs, but the magpie is not one of them. Amongst the birds that do are North America's mountain plover and the kiwi.

Answer: Corvidae

Columbidae refers to pigeons and doves.

Troglodyte translates from Latin as "cave-dweller" and relates to wrens.

Passer - as in passerine birds - is a genus of old world sparrows.

Answer: Three toes pointing forward, one toe pointing back

It makes sense if you think about it. Just think about how YOU would grip a branch with your feet!

Answer: True

Magpies are right at the top of the pecking order (Ouch, sorry about that!) when it comes to intelligence. Think about it, how many dead magpies do you see in the middle of the road, as opposed to pigeons? Not many. Having said that, I've yet to lose to one at Scrabble...

Answer: Chacker Chacker

A highly unpleasant sound admittedly, but the magpie's call is easily identifiable. I remember when one extremely vocal bird had been waking me, my wife and the cat up at some ungodly hour every morning and not allowing us any peace. Then one day it stopped.

When I went outside to hang the washing on the line, there was a dead magpie lying in the garden. I did wonder whether the cat had managed to identify which bird was causing the disturbance and decided to put a stop to it!

Answer: Tail

I'm sure you got this one right. After all, if I saw a magpie whose beak, legs or head made up half of its entire body length, I think I'd run a mile!