Building iPhone and iPad Electronic Projects

Colophon

The animal on the cover of Building iPhone and iPad Electronic Projects is a Eurasian magpie (Pica pica). The magpie is a very common bird throughout Europe, much of Asia, and northwestern Africa. Although considered a pest by some due to its penchant for eating small songbirds, the magpie is one of the smartest species of birds, and indeed one of the smartest animals in general. In the wild, magpies have been observed engaging in elaborate social rituals; they use tools, hide and store food, and employ complex group hunting strategies. Other members of the magpie’s family, corvidae, include crows and ravens, and all of these species have exhibited mirror self-recognition in captivity. Some primates and cetaceans share this capability; these animals have a large brain-to-body weight ratio that is only slightly lower than that of humans. It has even been shown in laboratory tests that the brains of corvidae birds have evolved the same ability to think geometrically as the great ape’s.

Wild magpies form monogamous pairs after attending large gatherings that Charles Darwin described as “marriage meetings.” A mating pair of magpies will stay together for their entire lives, raising broods of five to eight chicks every year. The chicks stay in the nest for a few weeks after hatching and still remain with the parents for about a week after learning to fly. It is thought that this long period of adolescence helps contribute to the birds’ intelligence, since the chicks have ample ...