Has it been known for a Crow to mate with a Magpie? We have quite a few Magpies around here. Today I noticed a Crow hanging around with a bunch of them. When the birds flew away I noticed that the Crow had white feathers on the underside and tips of its wings. The bird was definitely Crow shaped and bigger than a Maggie. It obviously thought it was one. Is cross-breeding like that in the wild possible? If so, how rare would that be?

I did a search for bird hybrid and hybrids are not uncommon, not necessarily your mixture but certainly mixed up birds.

It sounds like a very lost currawong! Did it look like this?

The currawong is quite common here, and is sometimes called a Bell Magpie. It has a much more melodic call than a crow, too.

I didn't know that birds in the wild interbred. I wonder if it's a case of mistaken identity, or just that some aren't fussy during the mating season. I suppose it could be a result of not being lucky enough to find a mate of their own species. This might make them look elsewhere.

It did look a bit like a currawong. I'd have to spot it again (and maybe hear it) to know if it is exactly the same.

Talking about a lost currwong ozzz, it maybe isn't too far-fetched. I had a trip along the River Thames a couple of years ago and noticed a large flock of parakeets in the trees. Also came across this article while looking into the subject.

How lovely. Best explain to them from downunder and even over the pond, in Britain most of our birds are dull brown or black, only a few have any real colour and when you see one such as a blue tit (will the filter let that one through?) it makes a lovely change. To see a flock of coloured birds would be some sight.

Every Spring we have a large group of budgies hanging around the house. Real wild green budgies that must number in the thousands - it's like a wave of green when they all take off together. Beautiful site.

That must look good. I like to watch wildlife of all kinds. We have one budgie. He's not particularly wild but can get a bit angry sometimes here he is. We thought if he had enough cold baths, his nose would eventually turn blue. It seems to have worked.

In spite of belonging to the same species, I doubt if a crow would naturally mate with a magpie, the differences in plumage, habit, etc being too great. We've had generations of blackbirds breeding in our garden, virtually all of which have had white markings somewhere on their plumage, so I don't believe a crow with a few white feathers is any indication of interbreeding with magpies.
There are cases where interbreeding occurs, generally when a related population moves into an area, say from America to Europe - there is a species of I think wood duck which is now endangered because of such interbreeding, but it's very uncommon.
Re. colourful birds, I loved the evening spectacle of thousands of Rainbow Lorikeets flying in to roost in the tree lined avenues of central Perth. Beautifully multi-coloured birds, which contrasted with our own nightly influx of plain starlings in London. Though of course, the starlings' plumage seen in bright sunlight is multi-hued and beautiful in its own way, and the calls of the starling mimicking other birds, or singing a solitary evening song take some beating!

Do you have black-jays in the UK? They're a bird which is common enough here and is mostly black with white tips on the end of their wings. The beak is a different shape to a crow but from a distance if they're on the ground you can hardly tell the difference.

We once had a duck lay it's eggs in the middle of our sheep yards which a couple days later were going to be filled with sheep and so obliterating the nest. We put the nest in a cage and waited patiently for the duck to come back to trap and move them to which she wouldn't turn up. We thought we'd might have scared her off the nest for good. When I went up there the next morning half the eggs had gone so I went to a distance with a pair of binoculars and watched as she moved each egg to a new nest.

Okay scrap that - I've just googled and found out a black-jay is also called a currawong. You learn something new every day.

Do we call them different things in different parts of the country, Ozzz? I'd never heard them called a carrawong before.

They must do- I have never heard of a black-jay, either.

But it is still rather strange that one would turn up on the other side of the world!

In attempting to find out if there are any known instances of crows and magpies cross-breeding, I've discovered this discussion forum, with the very similar enquiry and the responses.

The reason for my search is that to my family's amazement, we've just discovered that we have a visiting adult crow and its mate, an adult magpie, that are the obvious parents of a group of young cross-bred birds - each part magpie/part crow. These young birds are clearly not currawongs (we have plenty of them visit). Some of the young are more crow than magpie and vice versa. Some have a crow like head and beak, while others have a magpie like head and beak, but all have similar black and grey/white bodies.

We're not certain which of the two adult birds is the male and which is the female, but they have no problem being around each other and each is clearly fending for the young birds.

We live in Eltham, Victoria, about 22km from Melbourne (as the crow flies!). It is a very hilly and densly treed, native environment, with a lot of bird life (rosellas, king parrots, rainbow lorikeets, gallahs, cockatoos, corellas, kookaburras and a host of others).

We thought it was fantastic last year when we spotted some red-tailed black cockatoos (which are endangered) sitting on one of our fences. However, this recent find is certainly the most unique birdlife discovery we've made.

Despite what others have said in this forum, I can say that from the evidence we have recently discovered, magpies and crows can and do mate! We will attempt to get some photos during their visit tomorrow.

Welcome Crowpie What an interesting story! I'm not sure how to feel about a crow/maggie mix ... I love magpies but hate crows

I never knew red tail cockies were endangered. I'm in western NSW about 50ks off the Darling river, we don't get them out here but they are more than plentiful in town on the river. Actually, with the drought and all they liked to hang around the town all year (trust me, you don't hear that very often!) as food must have been getting scarce.

Hi Copago

We haven't had a visit from the MagCrows for the past couple of days - they're obviously staying away to spite me just because I really want to get some photos of them, especially now that I realise they are a bit of a rarity.

On the red-tialed black cookatoo, there is apparently only 1000 in existence of the variety from down at this part of the world - not sure if its the same type as the one up your way. If it is, you are privileged to see so much of them and so many of them.

Have a look at this website:
http://redtail.com.au/home.html

Oh right - yes it looks the ones around here are a different sub-spieces. They look pretty much the same though Beautiful, if noisy, birds!

Hope you can get a photo of the magcrows - would love to see them too if you don't mind?

There's no reason an escaped currawong shouldn't be seen in the UK, especially in the milder south. There are after all many Australian black swans living, and breeding throughout the country - and I've seen several in my locality this week.
Until around the 16th century, there was a an old saying "It's as likely as a black swan", meaning some event was virtually impossible. The saying died after Australia was 'discovered' by Europeans, and black swans were found to be very real indeed!
Another bird immigrant, which now numbers in thousands, is the ring-necked parakeet. Indigenous to India and Africa, there are quite large populations of these large green parrots in south east England, including the London area.