Common, clever, and related to the crow, or as Peter Thoem calls them in his My Bird of the Day blog, “urban opportunists,” magpies are nonetheless attractive birds, with their black, white, and blue plumage.

Here are some of Peter Thoem’s photos of magpies in Denmark; that flash of light in their eyes affirms their intelligence.

A magpie in Copenhagen. Photo: Peter Thoem.