The Australian magpie is one of that nation's most popular and iconic birds. It is loved for its impressive vocal abilities, propensity to play, excellent parenting and willingness to form enduring friendships with people.

Written by award-winning author Gisela Kaplan, a leading authority on animal behavior and Australian birds, this second edition of Australian Magpie is a thoroughly updated and substantially expanded account of the behavior of these birds. With new chapters on classification, cognition and caring for young, it reveals the extraordinary capabilities of the magpie, including its complex social behavior. The author, who has devoted more than 20 years to studying and interacting with magpies, brings together the latest research on the magpie's biology and behavior, along with information on the origin of magpies, their development and health not published previously.

This fascinating book has a wide appeal to bird lovers, amateur ornithologists and naturalists, as well as those with a scientific or professional interest in avian behavior and ecology and those interested in the importance of native birds to the environment.

Features:

- A fully updated account of this Australian icon, written by one of Australia's leading animal behavior researchers

- Interweaves rigorous academic research with hundreds of hours of the author's personal observations

- Unravels the complex family and social behavior of magpies in an engaging text