Magpie

Harper, M.J. and M. Hindmarsh. 1990. Lead poisoning in magpie geese Anseranas semipalmata from ingested lead pellet at Bool Lagoon Game Reserve (South Australia). Austral. Wildl. Res. 17 141-145... 

Whitehead, P.J. and K. Tschimer. 1991. Lead shot ingestion and lead poisoning of magpie geese Anseranas semipalmata foraging in a northern Australian hunting reserve. Biol. Conserv. 58 99-118. 

The black-billed magpie seems unusually sensitive to famphur. Dead famphur-poisoned magpies contained as much as 290 mg famphur/kg liver FW, 4770 mg/kg gizzard FW, and <0.2 mg/kg muscle or fat (Hill and Mendenhall 1980). There is a growing body of literature on adverse effects on magpies from pour-on (13.2% famphur) applications along the backline of cattle to control cattle warbles at the recommended rate of 0.326 mL/kg BW, not to exceed 118 mL/animal — equivalent to 43 mg/kg BW, not to exceed 15.6 g/animal (Felton etal. 1981 Henny etal. 1985 Seel 1985 Smith 1987). Felton etal. (1981) documented three occasions when dead birds were found after pour-on-famphur treatment of cattle against warble flies ... 

Current recommendations include the discontinuance of topical applications of famphur to cattle because of its association with primary and secondary poisoning of birds — especially magpies, hawks, and eagles — and more research on famphur in the three areas of latent effects on treated livestock, fate and effects in aquatic ecosystems, and carcinogenicity evaluation. 

Henny, C.J., L.J. Blus, E.J. Kolbe, and R.E. Fitzner. 1985. Organophosphate insecticide (famphur) topically applied to cattle kills magpies and hawks. Jour. Wildl. Manage. 49 648-658. 

Seel, D.C. 1985. Magpie containing warble-fly insecticide. British Birds 78 302-303. 

Australian magpie-lark, Grallina cyanoleuca 8.8 (95% Cl of 4.0-13.5) mg/kg BW single dose LD50 8, 13... 

Ring-necked pheasant, Phasianus colchicus 6.5 (95% Cl of 3.9-10.8) mg/kg BW single dose Black-billed magpie, Pica pica single dose LD50 1 f... 

Koening, W.D. and M.D. Reynolds. 1987. Potential poisoning of yellow-billed magpies by compound 1080. Wildl. Soc. Bull. 15 274-276. 

Okuno, I., G.E. Connolly, P.J. Savarie, and C.P. Breidenstein. 1984. Gas chromatographic analysis of coyote and magpie tissues for residues of compound 1080 (sodium fluoroacetate). Jour. Assoc. Offic. Anal. Chem. 67 549-553. 

Black-billed magpie Ethanethiol 8400 Snyder and Peterson,... 

Birds such as nuthatches, nutcrackers, and jays store food by buying seeds such as acorns, beechnuts, and pine seeds in the ground and find it later very well. A single Clark s nutcracker, Nucifraga columUana, buries as many as 33000 pinon seeds in up to 3750 different caches (Vander Wall, 1982). Experiments have shown that these nutcrackers use memory (Tomback, 1980), visual cues (Vander Wall, 1982), and probably little olfaction to locate buried food caches. Other birds use olfaction. Black-billed magpies, ica pica, discovered buried suet or raisins better when the cache was scented with cod liver oil (Buitron and Nuechterlein, 1985). 

Buitron, D. and Nuechterlein, G. L. (1985). Olfactoiy detection of food caches by blackbilled magpies. Condors , 92-95. 

Snyder, G. K. and Peterson, D. T. (1979). Olfactory sensitivity in the black-billed magpie and in the pigeon. ComparativeBiochemistry andPhysiologyA 62,921-925. 

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