A member of the Artamidae, the Australian magpie is placed in its own genus Gymnorhina and is most closely related to the black butcherbird (Melloria quoyi).

Common and widespread, it has adapted well to human habitation and is a familiar bird of parks, gardens and farmland in Australia and New Guinea.

This species is commonly fed by households around Australia, but in spring (and occasionally in autumn) a small minority of breeding magpies (almost always males) become aggressive, swooping and attacking those who approach their nests.

[3] Over 1,000 Australian magpies were introduced into New Zealand from 1864 to 1874,[4] but were subsequently deemed to be displacing native birds and are now treated as a pest species.

The Australian magpie was first described in the scientific literature by English ornithologist John Latham in 1801 as Coracias tibicen, the type collected in the Port Jackson region.

[6][a] Its specific epithet derived from the Latin tibicen "flute-player" or "piper" in reference to the bird's melodious call.

[8][9] An early recorded vernacular name is piping poller, written on a painting by Thomas Watling, one of a group known collectively as the Port Jackson Painter,[10] some time between 1788 and 1792.

[12] Tarra-won-nang,[10] or djarrawunang, wibung, and marriyang were names used by the local Eora and Darug inhabitants of the Sydney Basin.

[19] In South Australia, where it is the State emblem, it is the kurraka (Kaurna), murru (Narungga), urrakurli (Adnyamathanha), goora (Barngarla), konlarru (Ngarrindjeri) and tuwal (Bunganditj).

The Australian magpie's affinities with butcherbirds and currawongs were recognised early, and the three genera were placed in the family Cracticidae in 1914 by John Albert Leach after he had studied their musculature.

[21] American ornithologists Charles Sibley and Jon Ahlquist recognised the close relationship between woodswallows and the butcherbirds in 1985, and combined them into a Cracticini clade,[22] in the Artamidae.

[23] The Australian magpie is placed in its own monotypic genus Gymnorhina, which was introduced by the English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1840.

[42] Juveniles have lighter greys and browns amidst the starker blacks and whites of their plumage;[43] two- or three-year-old birds of both sexes closely resemble and are difficult to distinguish from adult females.

In Denis Glover's poem "The Magpies", the mature magpie's call is described as quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle,[50] one of the most famous lines in New Zealand poetry, and as waddle giggle gargle paddle poodle, in the children's book Waddle Giggle Gargle by Pamela Allen.

[55] Birds adopt a specific posture by tilting their heads back, expanding their chests, and moving their wings backwards.

[48] Fledgling and juvenile magpies emit a repeated short and loud (80 dB), high-pitched (8 kHz) begging call.

[59] The Australian magpie is found in the Trans-Fly region of southern New Guinea, between the Oriomo River and Muli Strait, and across most of Australia, bar the tip of Cape York,[60] the Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts, and the southwest of Tasmania.

[62] It has also been recorded in mature pine plantations; birds only occupy rainforest and wet sclerophyll forest in the vicinity of cleared areas.

[60] In general, evidence suggests the range and population of the Australian magpie has increased with land-clearing, although local declines in Queensland due to a 1902 drought, and in Tasmania in the 1930s have been noted; the cause for the latter is unclear but rabbit baiting, pine tree removal, and spread of the masked lapwing (Vanellus miles) have been implicated.

[65] They are thought to affect native New Zealand bird populations such as the tūī and kererū, sometimes raiding nests for eggs and nestlings,[65] although studies by Waikato University have cast doubt on this,[66] and much blame on the magpie as a predator in the past has been anecdotal only.

[71] On the ground, the Australian magpie moves around by walking, and is the only member of the Artamidae to do so; woodswallows, butcherbirds and currawongs all tend to hop with legs parallel.

Magpies place themselves either side of the bird of prey so that it will be attacked from behind should it strike a defender, and harass and drive the raptor to some distance beyond the territory.

In the negotiating display, the one or two dominant magpies parade along the border of the defended territory while the rest of the group stand back a little and look on.

[80] A 2022 study showed cooperative behaviour, along with a moderate level of problem-solving, when magpies (G. tibicen) assisted one another to remove tracking devices placed on their bodies in a specially-designed harness by researchers for conservation purposes.

[86] Other bird species, such as the yellow-rumped thornbill (Acanthiza chrysorrhoa), willie wagtail (Rhipidura leucophrys), southern whiteface (Aphelocephala leucopsis), and (less commonly) noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala), often nest in the same tree as the magpie.

[93] The Australian magpie is omnivorous, eating various items located at or near ground level including invertebrates such as earthworms, millipedes, snails, spiders and scorpions as well as a wide variety of insects—cockroaches, ants, earwigs, beetles, cicadas, moths and caterpillars and other larvae.

Skinks, frogs, mice and other small animals as well as grain, tubers, figs and walnuts have also been noted as components of their diet.

[95] Predominantly a ground feeder, the Australian magpie paces open areas methodically searching for insects and their larvae.

[120] Cyclists can deter attack by attaching a long pole with a flag to a bike,[121] and the use of cable ties on helmets has become common and appears to be effective.

[127] The magpie is a commonly used emblem of sporting teams in Australia, and its brash, cocky attitude has been likened to the Australian psyche.