• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Reference and further resources

Taxonomic note

Pica pica, P. mauritanica, P. asirensis and P. hudsonia (del Hoyo and Collar 2016) were previously lumped as P. pica following AERC TAC (2003), AOU (1998 and supplements), Christidis and Boles (2008), Cramp et al. (1977-1994) and Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993).

Taxonomic source(s)
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A., Fishpool, L.D.C., Boesman, P. and Kirwan, G.M. 2016. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 2: Passerines. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2023	Least Concern
2016	Least Concern
2012	Not Recognised
2008	Not Recognised
2004	Not Recognised
2000	Not Recognised
1994	Not Recognised
1988	Not Recognised

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	low
Land-mass type		Average mass	-

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	852,000 km2	medium
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	unknown	-	-	-
Population trend	decreasing	poor	suspected	-
Generation length	4.5 years	-	-	-

Population justification: The species is common in northwestern Morocco, in areas with thorny scrub, mixed agriculture and even in urban parks and large gardens. It is absent from arid zones, but may be found in oases such as at Laâyoune. It is scarce or rare in the forests in the Algerian Atlas (Ticehurst and Whistler 1938), but appears present more or less throughout the north of the country. Consequently the population size in these two countries is likely to be large, although it has not been estimated. In Tunisia the species is reported to now only occur in one area around Sbikha, with potentially fewer than a hundred pairs present (Nefla et al. 2021). This is a range and population contraction within the country from past records suggesting 12 isolated populations in the mid to late twentieth century (Nefla et al. 2020, 2021).

Trend justification: Evidence of range contraction in Tunisia (Nefla et al. 2021) and reported rapid declines in coastal Atlantic Saharan Morocco (Bergier et al. 2017) suggest that overall the population is declining. The majority occur in northern Morocco and Algeria, where there is no evidence of significant reductions. As such, the rate of population reduction is suspected to be slow.

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Algeria	extant	native	yes
Morocco	extant	native	yes
Tunisia	extant	native	yes
Western Sahara	extant	native	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Terrestrial	Arable Land	suitable	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Pastureland	marginal	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Rural Gardens	suitable	resident
Forest	Temperate	suitable	resident
Grassland	Temperate	suitable	resident
Shrubland	Mediterranean-type Shrubby Vegetation	suitable	resident
Shrubland	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	suitable	resident
Shrubland	Temperate	suitable	resident
Altitude	0 - 2500 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Agriculture & aquaculture	Annual & perennial non-timber crops - Agro-industry farming	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Ecosystem conversion

Purpose	Scale
Food - human	subsistence, national
Pets/display animals, horticulture	subsistence, national
Sport hunting/specimen collecting	subsistence, national

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Maghreb Magpie Pica mauritanica. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/maghreb-magpie-pica-mauritanica on 22/12/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 22/12/2024.