The Australian magpie was first described by English ornithologist John Latham in 1801 as "Coracias tibicen", the type collected in the Port Jackson region. Its specific epithet derived from the Latin "tibicen" "flute-player" or "piper" in reference to the bird's melodious call. An early recorded vernacular name is "piping poller", written on a painting by Thomas Watling, one of a group known collectively as the Port Jackson Painter, sometime between 1788 and 1792. Other names used include "piping crow-shrike", "piper", "maggie", "flute-bird" and "organ-bird". The term "bell-magpie" was proposed to help distinguish it from the European magpie but failed to gain wide acceptance.