Ilkley NorthWest Trail #2: Magpie - Bird Brain!
This is the 2nd of a 13-cache series which takes you on a 4.3km trail around some of the lovely countryside between Middleton and Austby immediately to the northwest of Ilkley above the north bank of the Wharfe. Allowing for an easy pace, stopping for caches | to admire the view | spot birds the trail should take you about 3 hours or so.
See GC8Q381 Ilkley NorthWest Trail #1: Intro & Start for background info on the trail and parking waypoints. See Gallery for a map of the trail showing parking spots and approximate cache locations.
The cache, a small camo-taped tablet pot, is hidden at the foot of a huge tree above the trail heading up through Owler Park, a lovely patch of old broad-leafed woodland.
To Reach the Cache Location: from #1, continue along the riverside trail until it meets the road. Cross over to Hardings Lane heading up/north and after a short distance take the 1st left onto Owler Park Rd, a Private Road with public foot access. Continue up here for approx 500m passing some fine houses/gardens along the way until you see a stile on your left heading into the woods. The cache is a short distance in on the upper side of the trail.
The (Eurasian or common) magpie (Pica pica) is a common resident breeding bird throughout the northern part of the Eurasian continent. It is one of the most intelligent birds, and one of the most intelligent of all non-human animals.
It is a corvid - a member of the crow family (Corvidae). There are 6 subspecies and the one resident in UK is the nominate P.p.pica.
Magpies were originally known as simply 'pies'. This comes from a proto-Indo-European root meaning 'pointed', in reference to either the beak or the tail. The prefix 'mag' dates from the 16th century and comes from the short form of the given name Margaret, which was once used to mean women in general (as Joe or Jack is used for men today); the pie's call was considered to sound like the idle chattering of a woman (not much PC in those days!), and so it came to be called the 'Mag pie'. 'Pie' as a term for the bird dates to the 13th century, and the word 'pied', first recorded in 1552, became applied to other birds that resembled the magpie in having black-and-white plumage.
Their preferred habit is open countryside with scattered trees and they are normally absent from treeless 
areas and dense forests. They sometimes breed at high densities in suburban settings such as parks and gardens. They can often be found close to the centre of cities.
They are normally sedentary and spend winters close to their nesting territories but birds living near the northern limit of their range in Sweden, Finland and Russia can move south in harsh weather.
It is omnivorous, eating young birds and eggs, small mammals, insects, scraps and carrion, acorns, grain, and other vegetable substances.
It is not only to be among the most intelligent of birds but among the most intelligent of all animals. Along with the jackdaw, its nidopallium is approximately the same relative size as those in chimpanzees and humans, significantly larger than the gibbon's.
Like other corvids, such as ravens and crows, their total brain-to-body mass ratio is equal to most great apes and cetaceans. A 2004 review suggests that the intelligence of the corvid family to which the Eurasian magpie belongs is equivalent to that of great apes (chimpanzees, orangutans and gorillas) in terms of social cognition, causal reasoning, flexibility, imagination and prospection.
They have been observed engaging in elaborate social rituals, possibly including the expression of grief (see here). They have shown self-recognition making them one of only a few species to possess this capability. Its cognitive abilities are regarded as evidence that intelligence evolved independently in both corvids and primates.
This is indicated by tool use, an ability to hide and store food across seasons, episodic memory, using their own experience to predict the behaviour of conspecifics (others of the same species).
Another behaviour exhibiting intelligence is cutting their food in correctly sized proportions for the size of 
their young. In captivity, magpies have been observed counting up to get food, imitating human voices, and regularly using tools to clean their own cages. In the wild, they organise themselves into gangs and use complex strategies hunting other birds and when confronted by predators.
See here for more information on this instantly recognisable and fascinating bird.
See here for a fascinating video of The Man Who Lives With a Magpie and here for a short video of magpies taunting a dozy fox.