A curious bird taxonomically, although very common in its home range in a wide variety of habitats.
Formerly regarded as a single species, it had two populations, separated by over 5000 miles, one limited to Spain/Portugal, the other in the far east, principally China. There was nothing like it in the intervening miles.
The anomaly of one apparent species in two hugely distinct locations was resolved by splitting it into two separate species, the European population becoming "Iberian Magpie".
One clear visual distinction (seen here) is that the AWM has a white tip to the tail, whereas the Iberian's tail is wholly blue.
