Pica (genus)

Pica is a genus of seven species of birds in the family Corvidae in both the New World and the Old. It is one of several corvid genera whose members are known as magpies.

Pica Temporal range: Pliocene–Recent PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Eurasian magpie (P. pica)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Corvidae
Subfamily:	Corvinae
Genus:	Pica Brisson, 1760
Type species
Corvus pica Linnaeus, 1758
Species
Pica pica Pica sericea Pica mauritanica Pica asirensis Pica bottanensis Pica nuttalli Pica hudsonia

Pica have long tails and have predominantly black and white markings. For instance, one species travels throughout Europe to Asia, one lives in western North America, one stays within California, one is confined to southwestern Saudi Arabia, and another one comes from North Africa. The last two species are often considered subspecies of the Eurasian. They were previously considered closely related to the blue and green magpies of Asia, but research suggests their closest relatives are the Eurasian crows.^[1]

Taxonomy

The genus Pica was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.^[2][3] He derived the name by tautonymy from the specific epithet of the Eurasian magpie Corvus pica which was introduced by Linnaeus in 1758.^[3][4] Pica is the Latin word for the Eurasian magpie.^[5]

In 2018, a molecular phylogenetic study found that the Eurasian magpie consisted of multiple species including the Maghreb magpie, the Asir magpie, the black-rumped magpie and the oriental magpie.^[6]

Species

The genus contains seven living species:^[7]

Genus Pica – Brisson, 1760 – seven species

Common name	Scientific name and subspecies	Range	Size and ecology	IUCN status and estimated population
Eurasian magpie	Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) Six subspecies P. p. fennorum – Lönnberg, 1927 P. p. pica – (Linnaeus, 1758) P. p. melanotos – A.E. Brehm, 1857 P. p. bactriana – Bonaparte, 1850 P. p. leucoptera – Gould, 1862 P. p. camtschatica – Stejneger, 1884	Europe and Asia	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Maghreb magpie	Pica mauritanica Malherbe, 1845	northwest Africa	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Asir magpie	Pica asirensis Bates, 1936	Asir Region of Saudi Arabia	Size: Habitat: Diet:	EN
Black-rumped magpie	Pica bottanensis (Delessert, 1840)	central Bhutan, west-central China	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Oriental magpie	Pica serica Gould, 1845	southeastern Russia and Myanmar to eastern China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and northern Indochina	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Black-billed magpie	Pica hudsonia (Sabine, 1823)	western half of North America	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Yellow-billed magpie	Pica nuttalli (Audubon, 1837)	California	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC

Fossil species

Two prehistoric species of Pica are currently known: Pica mourerae, from fossils found in Pliocene–Pleistocene boundary strata on Mallorca, and Pica praepica, from Early Pleistocene strata of Bulgaria.^[8][9]