Korean Magpie

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Korean Magpie
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Passeriformes Family: Corvidae Genus: Pica Species: P. pica Subspecies: P. (p.) sericea
Trinomial name
Pica (pica) sericea Gould, 1845

The Korean Magpie Pica (pica) sericea is currently considered a subspecies of the European Magpie found in East Asia. It is a common symbol of the Korean identity, and has been adopted as the "official bird" of numerous South Korean cities, counties and provinces. Compared to the European Magpie, it has a markedly shorter tail and a longer wing in relation to each other, and the back and tail show strong purple and hardly any green iridescence.

Recent research comparing mtDNA sequences (Lee et al., 2003) indicates that either all Pica magpies should be considered races of one species, or that the Korean Magpie (possibly including the Tibetan Magpie P. (p.) bottanensis) needs to be separated as a distinct species as it has been reproductively isolated for longer even than the Yellow-billed Magpie of North America. Hence, pending more comprehensive studies, the species binomen is put into parentheses, indicating that this bird may or may not be considered distinct.

Considering the fossil record of North American magpies (Miller & Bowman, 1956), it seems that the Korean Magpie's evolution as a distinct lineage started considerably earlier than the Late Pliocene date suggested by Lee et al. (2003). As their estimate is based on molecular data only (which is on its own unsuitable to reliably date evolutionary events at a better precision than several mya), it appears more likely that the Korean Magpie became distinct as early as 5-4.5 mya. As the estimate of molecular divergence rates used by Lee et al. does take into account the fact that magpies are long-lived birds (meaning that the average generation is somewhat longer than in other passerines), the best explanation is that some limited gene flow still occurred until the onset of the last period of ice ages some 2.5-2 mya.

[edit] References

• Lee, Sang-im; Parr, Cynthia S.; Hwang,Youna; Mindell, David P. & Choe, J. C. (2003): Phylogeny of magpies (genus Pica) inferred from mtDNA data. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 29: 250-257. doi:10.1016/S1055-7903(03)00096-4 PDF fulltext

• Miller, Alden H. & Bowman, Robert I. (1956): A Fossil Magpie from the Pleistocene of Texas. Condor 58(2): 164-165. PDF fulltext