Today, March 14, is traditionally celebrated as Pi Day -- because when the date is written 3/14, it represents the first three significant numbers of Pi. Pie day may be celebrated by eating pie, but since we like birds, today seems like a good day to celebrate the family of birds that has pie right in the name: Magpies!

There are three groups of true magpies. The four species of magpie in the genus Pica are the Holarctic, or black-and-white, magpies. The nine species of Oriental magpie are generally blue-green and are in the Urocissa genus and the Cissa genus. The azure-winged magpie belongs in the genus Cyanopica. Here are some fun facts about this group of intelligent and curious birds.

• Magpies belong to the Corvid family, which makes them closely related to birds like jays, crows, and ravens.
• The cartoon characters Heckle and Jeckle are a pair of magpies.
• There are several collective nouns used to describe a group of magpies, including "a gulp of magpies" and "a mischief of magpies."
• Magpies aren't the only birds with "pie" in their name. Another group in the Corvid family is the treepies. One bird in this group has a confusing name: the Black Magpie of Asia.
• Another bird with a confusing name is the Australian Magpie. This species isn't a magpie at all! Although its black-and-white plumage is very magpie-like, this species belongs in a different genus and is closely related to the Butcherbirds of Australasia.
• A recent taxonomical split may have added a new species of magpie to the list. The Azure-winged Magpie has an usual fragmented range with part of the population in southwestern Europe and part over in eastern Asia. Some ornithologists consider the two populations to be separate species, naming the European bird the Iberian Magpie.
• The Javan Green Magpie is the most endangered species of magpie. Endemic to Indonesia, it is considered to be Critically Endangered by the IUCN. Other endemic species of magpie include the Sri Lanka Blue Magpie, found only in Sri Lanka, and the Yellow-billed Magpie, found only in the U.S. state of California.

We would like to wish everyone who celebrates this holiday a Happy Thanksgiving today, with this picture of our Wild Turkey accompanied by a Tufted Titmouse. May the good things in life be yours in abundance, not only at Thanksgiving but throughout the coming year.

Happy New Year and best wishes for 2013! We added almost 100 new birds on Birdorable last year, and updated many others. In the picture below you can see all the new bird species we added in 2012, from lovebirds to vultures. Click to embiggen.

Thank you for reading our blog. We have big plans for 2013 and look forward to bring you many more cute birds, so stay tuned. You can also find Birdorable on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

Stuck inside on a cold or snowy day? Have some cute bird fun with our free Birdorable Coloring pages! We've got six holiday-themed pages plus thirteen other single-bird drawings ready for your creative coloring skills! Each of the single-bird coloring pages has some fun basic facts about the species - so you'll learn a bit about the birds as you color them in!

Have you used our coloring pages at home, in your classroom, or at an event? We’d love to hear about it! Send us photos of the pages in action, or the final result – we may showcase them on our blog!

Add Birdorable birds to your Christmas gift wrapping this year for some cute holiday cheer! Here are two fun ideas that combine our cartoon cuties with your own creativity!

Free Birdorable labels to print out and color

Print out our free downloadable PDF holiday labels. Use watercolor paint, crayons, markers, or colored pencils to color the birds. Cut out the finished birds and use tape or glue to attach them to your wrapped holiday gifts! Choose from Northern Cardinal, Tufted Titmouse, or screech owl.

Use Zazzle's tools to design your own Birdorable gift labels

Here are step-by-step instructions you can use to design personalized Birdorable gift label stickers for purchase. In this example, we'll design gift labels featuring one of our favorite birds, the Red-breasted Nuthatch. 1. Pick your bird! Visit Birdorable.com, click on Meet the Birds, and use the search box to find the Red-breasted Nuthatch species page. 2. Choose your design! Look at the Birdorable designs featuring the Red-breasted Nuthatch. For this example, we'll use Nuthatch Santa. 3. Start with a sticker! On the page featuring Nuthatch Santa apparel and gifts, find a sticker. Any sticker will do to start. Click on the square sticker to bring up the product page on Zazzle.com. 4. Customize it! Click on the orange Customize it! button to make changes to the sticker. Customization tools allow you to change things like the background color and design size and placement. The below video shows how customization works for some of these attributes.

You can make these kind of creative changes to all of our customizable stickers. So get creative and have fun! Happy holidays!

Our American friends are preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow, which means that the holidays are just around the corner! We'd like to highlight just a few new products, popular products, and new designs that would make perfect gifts for the bird-lover on your holiday gift list.

Gifts For Owl Lovers

There's no doubt that owls are a hot design trend this year. Cute cartoon owls are especially popular. There are a lot of pastel or brightly colored owls on the market, but here at Birdorable we pride ourselves on designing cartoon birds that are totally cute and naturally accurate - though we aren't against adding a little whimsy to our designs. Case-in-point: our most popular seller this year has been Owls are Cool, which features a Birdorable Barred Owl wearing a cool pair of shades. Have a look at all of our cute owl gifts.

For Your Holiday Gift Exchange: Shop by Price

We have improved the shop-by-price function on Birdorable.com. In the upper left corner there is a handy box which lists gift recipients and gift price ranges. If you click on one of the price range links, you can see a list of all products within that range. The new functionality allows for searching for specific products and/or birds within a price range. For example, you can search for Barn Owl t-shirts priced between $25 and $35, Christmas ornaments priced $15 to $20, or Bald Eagle gifts from $7 to $13.

Fun Ideas for Backyard Birders

If you have someone on your list who loves feeding birds, let them show off their hobby with a cute t-shirt! We've got designs for sharing Backyard Bird love plus a special design for those across the pond who feed their garden birds. If your recipient has a special favorite bird, browse through our species pages to find the perfect gift!

Think Green with Sustainable Gifts

Promote conservation at home with reuseable water bottles and cloth grocery and tote bags.

NEW! Smartphone Cases for Everyone

We have cases for iPhone 5 cases; iPhone 4 cases; iPhone 3 cases; Droid RAZR phone cases; HTC Vivid cases; Samsung Galaxy S3 cases; Samsung Galaxy S2 cases; and Blackberry cases. Some of these cases are brand new in our shop and have not been added with all of our designs so far. If there is a case you want with a certain design, let us know and we'll add it as soon as we can!

Pictured: One Day I'm Going To Be The Pope! iPhone 3 case; Philippine Eagle HTC Vivid case; Four Color Warblers Blackberry case; Puffin Prowess iPhone 4 case; Leach's Storm Petrel iPhone 5 case We've got accessories for other electronic devices, too. Check out our growing collection of iPad cases & folios; iPod Touch cases; iPad mini cases; and Kindle Keyboard cases We've also got new apparel options, plus brand new birds will be added each week right up until the end of the year. We're really gearing up for Christmas! As you prepare for the coming season, we wish you and all of our Birdorable fans tranquility, peace, and love during this season, and all throughout the year.

Today is Penguin Awareness Day! This commemorative day is always celebrated on January 20th, though the origins of the holiday are unclear. What is very clear is that these special charismatic birds deserve celebration! Many of the world's penguin species face population threats from habitat loss and other environmental strains.

Here are some resources for learning more about penguins:

• Nature: The World of Penguins
• Penguin Research Projects
• Wikipedia: Penguin

To get your mind on these flightless black-and-white beauties, we are debuting a new fun puzzle series here at Birdorable. Let's play Which one doesn't belong?

The birds in the image below have a lot in common, but one of them doesn't really belong. Can you pick out the species of penguin that doesn't go with the others, and tell us what the others have in common? Visit the meet page if you need help identifying the birds and finding out which one doesn't belong.

We end the year with a special message from all birds that we added this year:

(Click image to embiggen)

Do you recognize all the birds in the picture? They are (from top-left): Roseate Spoonbill, Red Knot, Northern Goshawk, Common Gallinule, Black Swan, Sardinian Warbler, Carolina Parakeet, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Humboldt Penguin, Pileated Woodpecker, Southern Cassowary, Eurasian Curlew, Eastern Screech Owl, Cinereous Vulture , Australian Ringneck, Bobolink, Lilac-breasted Roller, Brant Goose, Shoebill, Eurasian Spoonbill, European Roller, Chimney Swift, Chinstrap Penguin, Common Moorhen, Swainson's Trush, Little Egret, Lammergeier, Hermit Thrush, Pink-footed Goose, Lord Derby's Parakeet, Northern Bobwhite, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Great Black-backed Gull, Northern Wheatear, Blackburnian Warbler, Roadside Hawk, Dickcissel, Cyprus Warbler, Blue-bellied Roller, Double-barred Finch and Spoon-billed Sandpiper.

We wish you a wonderful Christmas and happy holidays. Arthur & Amy

From now until November 24th, Birdorable fans can pick up one free holiday card from our shop, fulfilled by Zazzle. Pick one of the following two cards and use the code FREEBIRDCARD at checkout to complete the offer.

Three Christmas Songbirds (US) by Birdorable
Christmas Barred Owl Santa by Birdorable

While shipping is not included in this offer, Zazzle does have an unlimited shipping program called Zazzle Black. You can sign up for a free 30-day trial of Zazzle Black and your shipping for this card and any other Zazzle purchases will be free for the next 30 days. A year of Zazzle Black is just $9.95, so if you like the free trial, purchase Zazzle Black for the year and enjoy unlimited free shipping on all future Birdorable Zazzle purchases for the year. Limit one card per customer. Remember, the free Birdorable card offer expires on November 24.

Legal:100% of card net sale price (excluding shipping and taxes) is deducted when qualifying http://www.zazzle.com/137307935659402897 & http://www.zazzle.com/137349325222310064 greeting card is purchased from http://www.zazzle.com/birdorable and the coupon code FREEBIRDCARD is applied at checkout. Offer does not apply to create your own cards. Offer does not apply to card orders of two or more. Buyer is responsible for shipping and handling and sales tax charges. Failure to comply with promotional offer conditions may result in order cancellation. Offer is valid through November 24, 2011 at 11:59pm PT. Offer does not apply to past purchases and may not be combined with any other Zazzle promotional or volume discount offers. If a volume discount applies to your order, you will receive either the discount set forth in this offer or the standard volume discount, whichever is greater. Offer valid on Zazzle.com only.