In k-Pop Demon Hunters, Sussie is depicted as a creature that can go between the human world and the demon world, always spending time with a goofy looking blue tiger. This pairing while it may seem strange is actually an homage to traditional Korean political art in which the tiger was drawn as a dopey looking animal representative of political leaders while the magpie was representative of the people, intelligent and cunning. In some of these depictions, the tiger is wearing a hat, which in k-pop demon hunters, is taken and worn by sussie the magpie instead.

Now that we know sussie is a magpie, what is it about magpies that make them such cool birds. For starters, they don’t just live in Eurasia but all the way across the ocean in North America too..

If you live in the US but still want to see a magpie like sussie, I have good news for you! There are two species of magpies that live in the United States, the Yellow-billed Magpie that can only be found in California and the Black billed Magpie that lives year round throughout much of the western United states and looks extremely similar to the Asian Magpie. There are also several other magpie species that live all over the world, so if you want to see sussie in real life, you can certainly go out and find a magpie in real life.

Additionally, magpies are very smart and have found ways to live in areas inhabited by humans, often feeding on scraps of food left behind by people. In fact, for people in the western US, these birds are probably a familiar sight around farms, and other areas where they can get free food.

Overall, k-pop Demon hunters did a solid job of depicting the magpie both getting the general appearance fairly accurate, but also by understanding its traditional importance to Korea both in art, and mythology.

If you haven’t seen it yet, go check it out and let us know what you think in the comments below. 

If you liked this video, take a look at one of our other videos about birds, and as always, thanks for watching, we’ll see you next time on Badgerland Birding.