It’s interesting when you travel in Australia and realise the birds have different accents in different places. The magpies always sound very definitely like magpies, but with slight variations in their warbles. I had a little chat to this magpie in Portland who sounded like it was a master of copying accents. At first I wondered what on earth it was singing, then it became apparent it had a different accent from its Ballarat cousins. It started with a sound that was without doubt a crow, then went on to do a really good seagull impression. Before flying off to the lamp post it gave a standard magpie warble, as if to reassure me on parting that it was very definitely a magpie.
