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| Common green magpie | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Nominate subspecies | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Corvidae |
| Genus: | Cissa |
| Species: | C. chinensis |
| Binomial name | |
| Cissa chinensis (Boddaert, 1783) | |
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| Native distribution of the common green magpie | |
Thecommon green magpie (Cissa chinensis) is a member of thecrow family, roughly the size of theEurasian jay or slightly smaller. In the wild, specimens are usually a bright and lush green in colour (which often fades to turquoise in captivity or with poor diet as the pigment is carotenoid-based[2]), slightly lighter on the underside and have a thick black stripe from the bill through the eyes to the nape. Compared to that of the other members ofits genus, the white-tipped tail is quite long. This all contrasts vividly with the red fleshy eye rims, bill and legs. The wings are reddish maroon.
It is found from the lowerHimalayas in north eastern India in a broad south easterly band down into centralThailand,Malaysia,Sumatra and northwesternBorneo in evergreen forest (includingbamboo forest), clearings and scrub.
This bird seeks food both on the ground and in the canopy of the trees, and takes a very high percentage of animal prey from countlessinvertebrates, smallreptiles,mammals and young birds and eggs. It will also take flesh from a recently killed carcass.They will usually feed the newborns first.
The nest is built in trees, large shrubs and often in tangles of various climbing vines. There are usually 4–6eggs laid.
The voice is quite varied but often a harshpeep-peep. It also frequently whistles and chatters.
The common green magpie was described by the French polymathGeorges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1775 in hisHistoire Naturelle des Oiseaux.[3] The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved byFrançois-Nicolas Martinet in thePlanches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision ofEdme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text.[4] Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalistPieter Boddaert coined thebinomial nameCoracias chinensis in his catalogue of thePlanches Enluminées.[5] Buffon believed that his specimen had come from China but the species only occurs in the extreme south of the country. Thetype locality was redesignated in 1952 by the German ornithologistErwin Stresemann asMergui,Tanintharyi Region, Myanmar.[6]
The common green magpie is now one of four species that are placed in thegenusCissa that was introduced by the German zoologistFriedrich Boie in 1826 with the common green magpie as thetype species.[7][8] The generic name is from theAncient Greekkissa meaning a "jay" or "magpie". The specific epithetchinensis was chosen by Boddaert in the mistaken belief that the specimen illustrated by Martinet had come from China.[9]
Fivesubspecies are recognised:[8]
