magpies

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Birdweb.net wrote:

To find out why songbirds are in trouble, the RSPB is undertaking intensive research on species such as the Skylark and Song Thrush. To discover whether Magpies (or Sparrowhawks) could be to blame for the decline, the RSPB commissioned the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) to analyse its 35 years of bird monitoring records.

BTO.org wrote:

For many people the Magpie is a villain, responsible for the widespread decline of songbirds. Research examining the question of whether Magpies have been responsible for songbird decline has failed to find any evidence to support the notion that they are to blame.

RSPB.org wrote:

The study found that songbird numbers were no different in places where there were many magpies or sparrowhawks from where there are few.

Plenty more from The Songbird Trust, Bexley et al.

As you can see the terms Songbird and Magpie are used in a mutually exclusive manner. Hence why the birding fraternity usually refers to small passerines as Songbirds and those big black & white Crows as Magpies.

gerky

I generally agree with Srameen on most things nature related, but in a lot of encyclopaedia, scientific journals and research relating to them Corvidae are classed as Oscine Passerine birds.

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Corvidae
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/139000/Corvidae
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2481519

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Apologies for straying off topic.

I agree fully that Corvidae are classed as Oscine Passerines. As Passerine refers to perching birds they can be nothing else; but the point is that they are not usually taken to be included in the, admittedly unscientific, term "Songbirds".

:)BK