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from $39
Fine-art Eurasian Magpie plate in the Audubon style. The pied corvid, all black, white and hidden blue.
Each print is made to order. You can cancel within 12 hours of ordering, after which it goes into production and cannot be cancelled. Secure checkout via Stripe.
On a weathered post, the bird stands still long enough to be looked at. The cream ground holds it, and in that moment the iridescence becomes visible: the wing feathers carry a purplish-blue sheen, the long tail runs to deep metallic green, neither colour present at all from a distance, both unmistakable up close. The plate does what a photograph rarely does for Pica pica - it gives the light time to arrive.
The composition is classic Audubon-style: single bird, lateral profile, the full length of that long graduated tail included. Over half the bird’s 44 to 46 centimetre body length is tail. In flight, the tail fans and the white wing patches flash, the result looking nothing like the settled bird on the post.
The Eurasian Magpie is a corvid of considerable cognitive standing. In 2008, researchers at a German university placed magpies in front of mirrors and marked them with coloured spots visible only in reflection. Two birds recognised the mark on their own bodies, turned to face the mirror, and scratched it off. Before that experiment, the mirror self-recognition test had been passed only by great apes, dolphins, and elephants. The magpie passed it with a brain the approximate size of a walnut.
She caches food across seasons, remembering hundreds of separate locations. She has been documented tracking individual humans who have disturbed her territory. She builds a domed nest, covering the mud cup from above to protect it from corvid raiders.
A bird that looked in a mirror and knew what it saw, drawn in the tradition of the old natural-history plate-makers who looked just as carefully back.
Full field guide: /species/eurasian-magpie/
Each print is made to order through our global print partner and shipped from the production lab nearest you - allow a few days for printing plus local tracked delivery.
Each print is made to order. You can change or cancel it within 12 hours of ordering. After that it goes into production and can no longer be cancelled, though we will always put right anything that arrives damaged.
The available sizes (up to A2) and any framed finishes are shown above. Choose yours before checkout.
Yes - each print is sized to fit standard frames. Framed finishes are offered on many prints.
Because each print is made to order, contact us within 14 days of delivery and we will put it right.
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