A magpie can recognise you – and four other fun facts about Australia’s most often-spotted bird

The Australian magpie will become so familiar with the people in their territory that they are known to bring their fledglings along to their friendly neighbourhood humans. Photograph: Doug Farr/Getty Images/500px

The Australian magpie has again topped the charts in BirdLife Australia’s Aussie Bird Count as the feathered friend most often spotted across the country.

Half of the 153,000 surveys submitted by 64,000 observers included the magpie, ahead of the rainbow lorikeet, which appeared on 42% of surveys and the noisy miner, making 34% of the counts.