Bird Watching: More birds from Down Under Volume 2, 1 by MargaretK

MargaretK wrote:
Immature Western Magpie. The Western Magpie is the only species found in Western Australia. These intelligent birds are both loved and loathed. They are friendly and engaging most of the time but during the nesting season, some, and I must emphasize the "some" become aggressive to anyone passing under the nest. Some (with emphasis) dive bomb people, particularly boys, if they can be considered people, as they are known to provoke the maggies, hurling stones and other missiles and acting in other ways to cause some birds to become defensively aggressive. We've given the local family of maggies supplementary treats for many years and are trusted by them and I'm absolutely positive that I could go to a nest without fear of being attacked; not that I intend to do that.

As the birds mature, the beak turns white, except for the tip, which remains black. They eye becomes redder, the male develops a distinctive white saddle back in his third year. As females mature, their backs become a mottled black, some birds being almost completely black backed and others, even within the same family having a splotchy grey pattern.

They are magnificent songsters and I believe they have recently been reclassified as song birds.