Australian magpie in New Zealand: Difference between revisions

The Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) is a medium-sized black and white passerine bird native to Australia and southern New Guinea. Three subspecies, including both black-backed and white-backed magpies, were introduced to New Zealand from the 1860s to control pests in pastures. They are now spread through much of the two main islands of the country.

Introductions and distribution[edit]

Magpies taken mainly from Tasmania and Victoria in Australia were introduced to New Zealand by local acclimatisation societies of Otago and Canterbury in the 1860s, with the Wellington Acclimatisation Society releasing 260 birds in 1874. They were introduced to control agricultural pests, and were a protected species until 1951.^[1]

It seems that three of the nine subspecies were introduced – the large white-backed G. t. tyrannica of southeastern Australia, the smaller white-backed G. t. hypoleuca of Tasmania and the black-backed G. t. tibicen of northern Australia. Magpies are now common in pasturelands, forest patches and suburban areas throughout the North Island and some of its offshore islands, in the eastern South Island from Blenheim to Southland, and increasingly in Tasman Bay and on the West Coast from Westport to Franz Josef / Waiau. The white-backed forms predominate, except in Hawke’s Bay and North Canterbury, where 95% are black-backed.^[2][3] Magpies are not present in forested areas of Fiordland or in alpine areas above the tree line. They are still scarce in South Westland and Stewart Island, and in Golden Bay / Mohua,^[2] where Tasman District Council aims to keep them out.^[4]

Behaviour[edit]