Common Magpie

Pica pica

Order: Passeriformes
Family: Corvidae
Presence in the Strait: Resident
Abundance: scarce
IUCN (global): LC · Least concern
In Spanish: Urraca común

Photograph: bitsnbirds, CC BY, vía iNaturalist

Length: 44–48 cm
Weight: 200–230 g

Presence in the Strait

Scarce breeder (two couple) on the farm Las Lomas (Benalup) since 2009. Beyond this place there are seven records: at Ceuta on 18.02.91 (1), 10.12.94 (2) and 7.01.99 (2); at Gibraltar on 14 to 25.04.76 (1) and 02.12.09 (1); at Pinar del Rey (San Roque) on 29.01.82 (11) and 13.02.88 (1); at Sierra del Niño on 24.08.89 (1).

Identification

Unmistakable. Black and white, long tail with green gloss. The subspecies P. p. mauritanica is from N Africa and differs with blue bare skin behind eye and lacking green gloss on tail.

Bioestrecho editorial text. Last revised: 8 September 2026.

Photographs from iNaturalist observations with the licence checked file by file. Those marked “Strait” were taken within the area; place and date are those of each observation.

Calendar in the Strait

13 %

Peak in January. Observations under CC0 or CC BY licences. The distribution also reflects observation effort.

Where it is seen

Open records from the atlas database, in cells of about 3.6 km. Opacity follows the square root of the count, and also reflects where people observe most.

See on the map

First open record: 1 April 1906
Latest record: 5 March 2026

The oldest and the most recent open observation in the extended area. A recent first observation does not mean the species is new: it means nobody had published it openly before.

Conservation

The catalogues, Andalusian and Spanish, are what binds; the Red Book assesses the Spanish population with IUCN criteria, and the global Red List is the context.

LCNTVUENCR

Andalusian Catalogue: Not included
Spanish Catalogue: Not included
Red Book of the Birds of Spain 2021: LC · Least concern · breeding
Global Red List (IUCN): LC · Least concern

Andalusian Catalogue: Junta de Andalucía, list of 24 April 2025. Spanish Catalogue: MITECO, table of 30 June 2025. Red Book: SEO/BirdLife, 2021 (Annex I). IUCN: via GBIF, 6 September 2026. Red Book and IUCN categories are assessments; catalogue categories are legal obligations.

Classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Corvidae
GBIF taxon key: 5229490

Sources

Distribution and calendar: Bioestrecho's own database, ingested from GBIF and OBIS
Photograph: bitsnbirds, CC BY, vía iNaturalist
Taxonomy: GBIF backbone, pending WoRMS for marine taxa
Editorial text: written by Bioestrecho
Last revised: 8 September 2026

Common Magpie

Presence in the Strait

Identification

Gallery