Indochinese green magpie

The Indochinese green magpie or yellow-breasted magpie (Cissa hypoleuca) is a passerine bird of the crow family, Corvidae. It is native to mainland southeast Asia (Indochina) and adjacent China.

Medium sized bird with green or light blue plumage
Prominent red bill, black mask and brownish-red wings
Size: about 35 cm

The green magpie lives in lowland evergreen forests, bamboo forests, and scrub ranging from northeastern India and down into central Thailand, Malaysia, Sumatra and northwestern Borneo. Wild individuals tend to avoid open areas and will stay under the cover of vegetation. Like all corvids, this species is primarily carnivorous, consuming a variety of invertebrates, as well as young birds and eggs, small reptiles and mammals.

This species has brilliant emerald green upperparts and slightly paler green underparts, reddish-brown wings, a bold black stripe that extends from the bill and through its dark eyes all the way to its nape and a very long white-tipped tail. Areas of bare skin are bright red; its eye rims, bill and legs.


Green magpies' green feathers will fade to turquoise-blue when frequently exposed to the sun. This is because green plumage colouration is produced by a combination of two sources: a special feather structure that produces blue colouring due the feather refracting light (known as schemochromes) combined with yellow carotenoids, a group of bio-pigments that come from the bird's diet. Captive birds and those wild individuals that spend a lot of time in the sun will fade to blue because carotenoids are destroyed by light (even the plumage colour of "stuffed" prepared bird specimens that are stored in dark museum drawers fades). Blue-coloured captive birds that are not kept outdoors are probably not getting enough carotenoids in their diet so they grow blue plumage when they moult. That said, it is worth mentioning that genetic blue plumage-colour variants do tend to pop up fairly frequently even in the wild. This colour variant is prized in aviculture, so is be selectively bred for when it does occur.
Catalan: garsa verda d'Indoxina
Czech: Kraska zlatobrichá, kraska zlatobřichá
Danish: Gulbrystet Jagtskade
German: Goldbauchelster, Goldbauch-Elster
English: Eastern Green Magpie, Eastern Magpie, Indochinese Green Magpie, Indochinese Green-Magpie, Yellow breasted Magpie, Yellow-breasted Green Magpie, Yellow-breasted Green-Magpie, Yellow-breasted Magpie
Spanish: Urraca Ventrigualda, Urraca Verde Oriental
Spanish (Spain): Urraca Ventrigualda
Estonian: vietnami roheharakas
Finnish: Malakiittiharakka
French: Pirolle à ventre jaune
Hungarian: aranyhasú kitta
Italian: Gazza pettogiallo, Gazza verde orientale
Japanese: shinahekisan, shinashi hekisan, shinashihekisan
Japanese: シナシヘキサン, シナヘキサン
Japanese (Kanji): シナシ碧鵲
Latin: Cissa hypoleuca, Cissa hypoleuca hypoleuca, Cissa thalassina hypoleuca
Lithuanian: Geltonpilvė cisa
Dutch: Geelbuikkitta
Norwegian: Gulbrystskjære
Polish: kitta zielona
Pinyin: huáng-xiōng lǜ-què, yìn-zhī lǜ-què
Russian: Восточная цисса
Slovak: kita žltoprsá
Serbian: Indokineska zelena svraka
Swedish: Gulbröstad skata, indokinesisk grönskata
Thai: นกสาลิกาเขียวหางสั้น
Thai (Transliteration): nók săa-lí-kaa kʰĭaw hăaŋ-sân
Vietnamese: Chim Giẻ cùi bụng vàng, Giẻ cùi bụng vàng
Chinese: 印支绿鹊, 黄胸绿鹊
Chinese (Traditional): 印支綠鵲, 紅胸綠鵲, 黃胸綠鵲, 黃胸藍鵲