Urocissa caerulea

Endemic

VOTED TAIWAN'S NATIONAL BIRD!

An elongated (63–69 cm) blue magpie.  The long tail accounts for some 40 cm of this length.  The body plumage is rich azure-blue, with black head, neck, throat and breast, red beak and feet, and yellow iris.  Two very long white-tipped feathers protrude from the tail. 

Like other members of the corvidae family (crows, jays and magpies), Formosan Magpies are intelligent.  They live in deciduous hill forests at low and middle elevations up to 1800m, but sometimes descending as low as 50 m in winter.  The breeding season is April to August.   A social breeder; their shallow nests are constructed of twigs, placed in tall trees.  Clutch size 4–7 eggs.

Formosan Magpies feed on a variety of foods, including fruits, insects, lizards, snakes, bird's eggs, birds, and small mammals.  They especially like papayas, persimmons, and other fruits, when they can find them.  They give a metallic call of "ge-- kang, kang, kang."

Parties of Formosan Magpies often fly in the so-called "long-tailed formation," with each bird flying one after the other in a magnificent troop.

Relatively uncommon to locally common through their main range.  Absent from cleared western lowlands.

Local common name:  long-tailed mountain lady.

References:  The Complete Guide to Birds in Taiwan, Jin-yuan Wang

                       Endemic Species of Taiwan, compiled by Greenland Ecology Conservation Association of R.O.C.

                       www.gio.gov.tw/info/ecology/Englsh

Formosan Magpie by Wang Chen-Wen