THE TALE OF THE BLUE MAGPIE

The Azure Magpie (Cyanopica Cyanus) is a bird with a very strange distribution: it exists only at the extreme ends of the huge continental Eurasian landmass - in China and on the Iberian Peninsula.

The common belief is that it was an introduced species. Referenced in China since distant times, it was quite logical to assume that the first Spanish and Portuguese missionaries to Asia, attracted by the beautiful plumage, brought it back to the Iberian Peninsula.

A discovery in a Gibraltar cave of some very old remains of the Azure Magpie, sparked off new theories among the scientific community. And a DNA analysis of Chinese Azure Magpie and Iberian ones, revealed a surprising new reality.