Magpies are everywhere in town. The European magpie is very intelligent, and is one of the only animals that passes the mirror test. I assume the Korean magpie (what I understand to be the subspecies that we have here) is every bit as smart.
I have always known a magpie was a bird, but I have never lived in a place with magpies, so I never saw them growing up. Since visiting Europe, I have always known about those large black-and-white birds (Elster in German). But I never put together the word 'magpie' with the thing 'magpie.' Of course, in Chinese, there is a third thing -- the character for magpie.
Their nests are huge!
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