The black-billed magpie (''Pica hudsonia''), also known as the American magpie, is a bird in the corvid family found in the western half of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. It is black and white, with the wings and tail showing black areas and iridescent hints of blue and blue-green. It was once thought to be a subspecies of ''

Pica pica The Eurasian magpie or common magpie (''Pica pica'') is a resident breeding bird throughout the northern part of the Eurasian continent. It is one of several birds in the crow family (corvids) designated magpies, and belongs to the Holarctic rad ...

'', which was known as the black-billed magpie at the time, but was placed into its own species in 2000 based on

genetic studies Genetic analysis is the overall process of studying and researching in fields of science that involve genetics and molecular biology. There are a number of applications that are developed from this research, and these are also considered parts ...

. Currently, ''Pica pica'' is the scientific name of the

Eurasian magpie The Eurasian magpie or common magpie (''Pica pica'') is a resident breeding bird throughout the northern part of the Eurasian continent. It is one of several birds in the crow family (corvids) designated magpies, and belongs to the Holarctic r ...

. This species prefers generally open habitats with clumps of trees, but can also commonly be found in farmlands and suburban areas. Historically associated with

bison A bison (: bison) is a large bovine in the genus ''Bison'' (from Greek, meaning 'wild ox') within the tribe Bovini. Two extant taxon, extant and numerous extinction, extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American ...

herds, it now lands on the backs of cattle to glean ticks and insects from them. Black-billed magpies commonly follow large predators, such as wolves, to scavenge from their kills. The species also walks or hops on the ground, where it obtains food items such as beetles, grasshoppers, worms, and small rodents. The black-billed magpie builds domed

nest A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold Egg (biology), eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of ...

s which are made up of twigs and are located near the top of trees, usually housing six to seven eggs. Incubation, by the female only, starts when the clutch is complete, and lasts 16–21 days. The nestling period is three to four weeks. Black-billed magpies in the wild have a lifespan of six to seven years. Black-billed magpies have a long history with humans, being featured in stories told by Indigenous tribes of the

Great Plains The Great Plains is a broad expanse of plain, flatland in North America. The region stretches east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. They are the western part of the Interior Plains, which include th ...

. Where persecuted it becomes very wary, but otherwise it is fairly tolerant of human presence. Due to their perceived negative impact on cattle and game birds, black-billed magpies were hunted as a pest during the 1900s, and their population suffered as a result. Today, they are considered a species of

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

, and they are commonly seen throughout their range.

Taxonomy and systematics

The black-billed magpie was originally described in 1823 as ''Corvus Hudsonius'' by

Joseph Sabine Joseph Sabine FRS ( ; 6 June 1770 – 24 January 1837) was an English lawyer, naturalist and writer on horticulture. Life and work Sabine was born into a prominent Anglo-Irish family in Tewin, Hertfordshire, the eldest son of Joseph Sabine. ...

. In previous encounters with the species prior to its

description Description is any type of communication that aims to make vivid a place, object, person, group, or other physical entity. It is one of four rhetorical modes (also known as ''modes of discourse''), along with exposition, argumentation, and narr ...

, it was presumed to be of the same species as the magpies from Europe, which at the time were also known as black-billed magpies. Based on the black-billed magpie's smaller size and longer tail and wing length, it was classified as the subspecies ''P. pica hudsonia''. The generic name ''Pica'' is the Latin word for magpie, and the specific name ''hudsonia'' is in honour of the English explorer

Henry Hudson Henry Hudson ( 1565 – disappeared 23 June 1611) was an English sea explorer and navigator during the early 17th century, best known for his explorations of present-day Canada and parts of the Northeastern United States. In 1607 and 16 ...

. The word "magpie" comes from a combination of "Mag", which was a nickname for Margaret, and "pie", which was the

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

word for the Eurasian magpie. The name Margaret was associated with chattiness in the early 15th century, and was applied to the magpie because its vocalizations were thought to sound like a person chattering. The black-billed magpie was widely considered

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organism ...

with the Eurasian magpie until

mtDNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the DNA contained in ...

studies showed a relatively high divergence between the two species. The species consisting of the black-billed and Eurasian magpies was called the black-billed magpie in English, and its scientific name was ''Pica pica''. It was also shown that the black-billed magpie was more closely related to California's

yellow-billed magpie The yellow-billed magpie (''Pica nuttallii''), also known as the California magpie, is a large corvid that inhabits California's Central Valley and the adjacent chaparral foothills and mountains. Apart from its having a yellow bill and a yellow ...

(''Pica nuttalli''). Black-billed magpies are also shown to have different social behaviours and vocalizations from the Eurasian magpie, further indicating separate species. In 2000, the

American Ornithologists' Union The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its ...

recognized the black-billed magpie as a separate species, ''Pica hudsonia''. Fossil evidence suggests that the ancestral North American magpie arrived in its current range around the mid-

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58mya, having crossed the

Bering land bridge Beringia is defined today as the land and maritime area bounded on the west by the Lena River in Russia; on the east by the Mackenzie River in Canada; on the north by 72° north latitude in the Chukchi Sea; and on the south by the tip of the ...

. From there, the Eurasian and North American populations began to differentiate. The yellow-billed magpie lineage likely split off soon after due to the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

uplift and the beginning of an

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

. A comparatively low genetic difference, however, suggests that some

gene flow In population genetics, gene flow (also known as migration and allele flow) is the transfer of genetic variation, genetic material from one population to another. If the rate of gene flow is high enough, then two populations will have equivalent ...

between the black-billed and yellow-billed magpies still occurred during

interglacial An interglacial period (or alternatively interglacial, interglaciation) is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age. The current Holocene i ...

periods until the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

Description

The black-billed magpie is an unmistakable bird within its range. It is a medium-sized bird that measures from tip to tail. It is largely black, with white

scapulars The scapula (: scapulae or scapulas), also known as the shoulder blade, is the bone that connects the humerus (upper arm bone) with the clavicle (collar bone). Like their connected bones, the scapulae are paired, with each scapula on either side ...

, belly, and

primaries Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pri ...

, and the wings and tail are an

iridescent Iridescence (also known as goniochromism) is the phenomenon of certain surfaces that appear gradually to change colour as the angle of view or the angle of illumination changes. Iridescence is caused by wave interference of light in microstruc ...

blue-green. The tail is made up of long, layered feathers, the middle pair of which extend further than the rest. The

beak The beak, bill, or rostrum is an external anatomical structure found mostly in birds, but also in turtles, non-avian dinosaurs and a few mammals. A beak is used for pecking, grasping, and holding (in probing for food, eating, manipulating and ...

is uniformly black, oblong, and weakly curved toward the tip. Adults also have black irises. Unlike other members of the

Corvidae Corvidae is a Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan Family (biology), family of Songbird, oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, Rook (bird), rooks, magpies, jackdaws, jays, treepies, choughs, and Nutcracker (bird), nutcrackers ...

family, the black-billed magpie is dimorphic in size and weight, though there can be overlap between the sexes. Males are, on average, six to nine percent larger and sixteen to twenty-four percent heavier than females, at , an individual wing chord of , and tail lengths of . Females weigh between , have individual wing chords of , and tail lengths of . High School Magpie

Juveniles have less iridescence on their wings and tail, buffier scapulars and belly, and they lack the distinctive long tail feathers. Their

rectrices Flight feathers (''Pennae volatus'') are the long, stiff, asymmetrically shaped, but symmetrically paired pennaceous feathers on the Bird wing, wings or tail of a bird; those on the wings are called remiges (), singular remex (), while those ...

are typically rounder and narrower, and have more black on their wing-tips compared to mature adults. They also have pink mouth-linings and grey irises. All juvenile features will typically be gone by the first year's

moult In biology, moulting (British English), or molting (American English), also known as sloughing, shedding, or in many invertebrates, ecdysis, is a process by which an animal casts off parts of its body to serve some beneficial purpose, either at ...

. The black-billed magpie can be distinguished from the similar yellow-billed magpie by its longer tail and by the colour of the beak. Eurasian magpies are visually very similar to black-billed magpies; however, Eurasian magpies are slightly larger and have shorter tails and wings. They can also be distinguished based on their different vocalizations, as well as by their non-overlapping ranges.

Vocalizations

The vocalizations of the black-billed magpie consist of a number of calls variously described as tweets, coos, purrs, shrills and squawks, but the most common is an alarm call, called a chatter, that is described as a ''ka-ka-ka-ka'', sometimes preceded with a ''skah-skah''. This call is very different from that of the

and is similar to that of the

. At least one black-billed magpie, living with humans, has learned to imitate human speech.

Distribution and habitat

Black-billed magpies are generally

non-migratory Bird migration is a seasonal movement of birds between breeding and wintering grounds that occurs twice a year. It is typically from north to south or from south to north. Animal migration, Migration is inherently risky, due to predation and ...

, however some winter movement does occur. While the exact reason for these movements is unknown, it is thought to be a result of postbreeding dispersal and a subsequent return to their nesting sites. This species ranges from coastal southern

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

, southwest

Yukon Territory Yukon () is a territory of Canada, bordering British Columbia to the south, the Northwest Territories to the east, the Beaufort Sea to the north, and the U.S. state of Alaska to the west. It is Canada’s westernmost territory and the smallest ...

, central

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

, and

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

in the north, through the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

down south to all the Rocky Mountain states including

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

, and some bordering states as well. The range can extend as far east as northern

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

and Iowa, with casual records in northern

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

and upper

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, but is thought to be limited further east and south by high temperature and humidity. The species is absent in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

west of the Cascades and

ranges, where it is replaced by the yellow-billed magpie. During the breeding season the preferred habitat is

riparian A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. In some regions, the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone, riparian corridor, and riparian strip are used to characterize a ripar ...

areas with thickets. The predilection for open habitats with clumps of trees means that the species lives in meadows and suburbs. Outside the breeding season, magpies can be found in their breeding habitat but also near

feedlots A feedlot or feed yard is a type of animal feeding operation (AFO) which is used in intensive animal farming, notably beef cattle, but also swine, horses, sheep, turkeys, chickens or ducks, prior to slaughter. Large beef feedlots are called con ...

grain elevators A grain elevator or grain terminal is a facility designed to stockpile or store grain. In the grain trade, the term "grain elevator" also describes a tower containing a bucket elevator or a pneumatic conveyor, which scoops up grain from a lowe ...

, landfills, and around barns and houses.

Behaviour

Breeding and nesting

Adult black-billed magpie typically form pairs which last year-round and often for life, in which case the remaining magpie may find another mate. "Divorces" are possible; one South Dakota study found low rates of divorce (8%) but one study in Alberta found that pairs had a 63% divorce rate over a 7-year period. Black-billed magpies

individually, and often situate their nests near the top of trees. Only the nest tree and its immediate surroundings are defended, and so it is possible for nests to be somewhat clumped in a location. When this happens (usually in areas with a limited number of trees or with abundant food resources), a diffuse

colony A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their ''metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often orga ...

is formed. In this, the black-billed magpie is intermediate between the Eurasian magpie, whose nests are much more spread out because a large territory is defended around each nest, and the yellow-billed magpie, which is always loosely colonial.

Nests A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of organic materi ...

are loose but large accumulations of branches, twigs, grass, rootlets, mud, fur, and other materials. Branches and twigs constitute the base and framework, while mud is used as anchor and in the nest cup. The cup is lined with materials found nearby, often grass, rootlets, and other soft material. A hood or dome is present on almost all nests, and if formed of twigs and branches that are loosely assembled. The nest will usually have a single side entrance. Nests are built by both sexes over 40–50 days, starting in February (though later in northern parts of the range). Nests have been shown to be quite durable, and occasionally old nests are repaired and reused across multiple breeding seasons. If regularly disturbed, black-billed magpie pairs will aggressively defend their nest. If the disturbances continue, they will eventually either move the eggs or abandon the clutch altogether. Biologists who have climbed nest trees to measure magpie eggs have reported that the parents recognized them personally on subsequent days and started to

mob Mob or MOB may refer to: Behavioral phenomena * Crowd * Smart mob, a temporary self-structuring social organization, coordinated through telecommunication Crime and law enforcement * American Mafia, also known as the Mob * Irish Mob, a US crimi ...

them, overlooking other people in the vicinity. Black-billed magpies generally start breeding in late March, with the breeding season ending in early July. While they typically only nest once per year, a second nesting may take place if the initial nesting fails early. The average

clutch size A clutch of eggs is the group of eggs produced by birds, amphibians, or reptiles, often at a single time, particularly those laid in a nest. In birds, destruction of a clutch by predators (or removal by humans, for example the California condor b ...

is six or seven eggs, however females may lay up to thirteen eggs. The eggs are greenish grey, marked with browns, and long. Incubation lasts 16–21 days and is done only by the female. Hatching is often asynchronous, and hatched young are

altricial Precocial species in birds and mammals are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching. They are normally nidifugous, meaning that they leave the nest shortly after birth or hatching. Altricial ...

, brooded by the female but fed by both sexes. Juveniles are able to fly 3–4 weeks after hatching, and will feed with adults for about two months before leaving to join other juvenile magpies.

Fledging Fledging is the stage in a flying animal's life between hatching or birth and becoming capable of flight. This term is most frequently applied to birds, but is also used for bats. For altricial birds, those that spend more time in vulnerable c ...

success (usually 3–4 young per nest) is lower than the typical clutch size; this is not an unusual state of affairs in species with asynchronous hatching, as some nestlings often die of starvation. Black-billed magpies reach sexual maturity at one or two years of age. The lifespan of the species in the wild is about four to six years.

Feeding

The black-billed magpie is an opportunistic

omnivore An omnivore () is an animal that regularly consumes significant quantities of both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and animal matter, omnivores digest carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber, and metabolize t ...

, eating whatever is readily available, including carrion, insects, seeds, berries, and nuts. When living near humans, they will also eat garbage and food from pets or livestock that are fed outside. They have been known to hunt rodents, reptiles, amphibians, small birds, and have also been seen eating eggs of other birds. Black-billed magpies primarily feed on animal matter during the summer, and in the winter switch to more vegetation. Chicks are fed animal matter almost exclusively. Magpies typically forage on the ground, scratching with their feet or beaks to turn over ground litter. They often follow large predators, such as wolves, to scavenge or steal from their kills. They sometimes land on large mammals, such as moose, cattle, or deer, to pick at the ticks that often plague these animals. Black-billed magpies are also known to make food caches in the ground, in scatter-hoarding fashion. To make a cache, the bird pushes or hammers its bill into the ground (or snow), forming a small hole into which it deposits the food items it was holding in a small pouch under its tongue. It may, however, then move the food to another location, particularly if other magpies in the vicinity are watching. Cache robbing is fairly common, so a magpie often makes several false caches before a real one. The final cache is covered with grass, leaves, or twigs. After this, the bird cocks its head and stares at the cache, possibly to commit the site to memory. Such hoards are short-term; the food is usually recovered within several days, or the bird never returns. The bird relocates its caches by sight and also by smell; during cache robbing, smell is probably the primary cue.

Social interactions

Black-billed magpies often form loose flocks outside of the breeding season.

Dominance hierarchies In the zoological field of ethology, a dominance hierarchy (formerly and colloquially called a pecking order) is a type of social hierarchy that arises when members of animal social groups interact, creating a ranking system. Different types of ...

typically develop within such flocks, more linearly among males than among females. Dominants can steal food from subordinates. Aggressive interactions also occur at point sources of food. Surprisingly, young males appear dominant over adult males, though this may simply reflect the adults' lack of motivation to engage in fights as they can more easily find food. Fights are rare and involve jumps and kicks. Dominance is more generally established through displays, such as stretching the body laterally with the bill raised and the

nictitating membrane The nictitating membrane (from Latin '' nictare'', to blink) is a transparent or translucent third eyelid present in some animals that can be drawn across the eye from the medial canthus to protect and moisten it while maintaining vision. Most ...

of the eye flashing (only on the side of the opponent). Magpies often gather excitedly in trees near the body of a dead magpie, calling loudly, a poorly-understood behaviour called a funeral.

Roosting

Magpies tend to roost communally in winter. Every evening they fly, often in groups and sometimes over long distances, to reach safe roosting sites such as dense trees or shrubs that impede predator movement, or, at higher latitudes, dense conifers that afford good wind protection. In Canada, they arrive at the roosting site earlier in the evening and leave later in the morning on colder days. At the roosting site, they tend to occupy trees singly; they do not huddle. They sleep with the bill tucked under the scapular (shoulder) and back feathers, adopting this position sooner on colder nights. During the night, they may also regurgitate in the form of pellets the undigested parts of what they ate during the day. Such pellets can be found on the ground and then used to determine at least part of the birds' diet.

Flight

Level flight appears slow and labored. As measured in wind tunnels, minimum and maximum sustained flight speeds are , respectively. Flight is commonly interrupted by nonflapping phases. Descents from heights consist of repeated J-shaped swoops with the wings nearly closed.

Relationship with humans

Black-billed magpies feature in stories told by various Indigenous tribes from the

. One story, sometimes known as ”The Great Race”, features a magpie working with humans in a race against the bison to determine who would be hunter and who would be prey. The race was narrowly won by the magpie, who had clung to the back of the bison until near the end, making humans the hunters and bison the hunted. When

Lewis and Clark Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * " Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohe ...

first encountered black-billed magpies in 1804 in South Dakota, they reported the birds as being very bold, entering tents and taking food from the hand. Magpies formerly followed

American bison The American bison (''Bison bison''; : ''bison''), commonly known as the American buffalo, or simply buffalo (not to be confused with Bubalina, true buffalo), is a species of bison that is endemic species, endemic (or native) to North America. ...

herds, from which they would glean ticks and other insects, as well as the Indigenous tribes that hunted the bison so they could scavenge carcasses. When the bison herds were devastated in the 1870s, magpies switched to cattle, and by the 1960s, they had also moved into the emerging towns and cities of the West. Today, black-billed magpies remain relatively tame in areas where they are not hunted. However, they become very wary in areas where they are often shot at or disturbed. Black-billed magpies were thought to be harmful to the population of

game bird Game or quarry is any wild animal hunted for animal products (primarily meat), for recreation (" sporting"), or for trophies. The species of animals hunted as game varies in different parts of the world and by different local jurisdictions, thou ...

s (due to them sometimes stealing bird eggs) and domestic stock (pecking at sores on cattle), and were systematically trapped or shot during the first half of the 20th century. Bounties of one cent per egg or two cents per head were offered in many states. In 1933, bounty hunters in the Okanogan valley in Washington shot 1,033 magpies. Magpies also died as a result of eating poison set out for predators. Black-billed magpies are considered a pest by some because of their reputation for stealing smaller

songbird A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds (Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin ''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 5,00 ...

eggs. Studies have shown, however, that eggs make up only a small proportion of what magpies feed on during the reproductive season, and that other songbird populations do not fare worse in the presence of magpies. A common misconception about magpies in general is that they like to steal bright or shiny things. This reputation belongs to the

(''Pica pica'') rather than the black-billed magpie, and at any rate an experiment conducted at Exeter University has shown that the reputation is undeserved. Eurasian magpies displayed caution around shiny objects rather than being attracted to them.

Conservation status

Because of its wide range and generally stable population, the black-billed magpie is rated as a species of

by the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

. As of 2015, the Government of Canada estimates the population to be between 500,000 and 5,000,000 adults. In the United States, black-billed magpies are protected under the

Migratory Bird Treaty Act The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 (MBTA), codified at (although §709 is omitted), is a United States federal law, first enacted in 1918 to implement the convention for the protection of migratory birds between the United States and Canada. ...

, but " Federal permit shall not be required to control ... agpieswhen found committing or about to commit depredations upon ornamental or shade trees, agricultural crops, livestock, or wildlife, or when concentrated in such numbers and manner as to constitute a health hazard or other nuisance". State or local regulations may limit or prohibit killing these birds as well. In Canada, however, black-billed magpies do not appear on the list of birds protected by the

Migratory Birds Convention Act The Migratory Birds Convention Act (also MBCA) is a Canadian law established in 1917 and significantly updated in June 1994 which contains regulations to protect migratory birds, their eggs, and their nests from destruction by hunting, trafficking ...

. Provincial laws also apply, but in Alberta, magpies may be hunted and trapped without a license.Alberta Wildlife Act, Schedule 4, Part 6 Non‑licence Animals
qp.alberta.ca A detriment to the overall black-billed magpie population is toxic chemicals, particularly topical pesticides applied on the backs of livestock. Because black-billed magpies sometimes glean ticks off the backs of cattle, this proves a problem. However, in some areas, it has benefited from forest fragmentation and agricultural developments. Like many corvids, it is susceptible to

West Nile virus West Nile virus (WNV) is a single-stranded RNA virus that causes West Nile fever. It is a member of the family ''Flaviviridae'', from the genus ''Flavivirus'', which also contains the Zika virus, dengue virus, and yellow fever virus. The virus ...

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q254057 Birds described in 1823 Birds of the Aleutian Islands Native birds of Alaska Native birds of the Canadian Prairies Native birds of the Northwestern United States Native birds of the Plains-Midwest (United States) Native birds of the Western United States Native birds of Western Canada Pica (genus) Taxa named by Joseph Sabine