Pica hudsonia

The black-billed magpie is familiar to anyone who grew up in the West, some of whom have strong feelings about the birds. Magpies were once hunted and had a bounty on their heads, as farmers considered them competitors for their crops. But people without that baggage will find the magpie a beautiful and interesting bird.

It was a nemesis bird of mine when I started looking for one at the age of 9. A resident of Pennsylvania at the time, I was not aware that the black-billed magpie did not occur in the East.

Nevertheless, I looked for it on many a birding trip. My first sighting was in 1983 in Boise, Idaho, on my first trip to the Intermountain West. My driver was startled by my sudden command to pull over and stop the car. As I got out my binoculars and peered through them, he nervously asked me what I was looking at. "A black-billed magpie," was my very satisfied answer.

Magpies belong to the family Corvidae, which includes ravens, crows, nutcrackers and jays, and are know for their intelligence. Two magpie species are found in North America: yellow-billed and black-billed. The yellow-billed magpie lives in a very narrow range of northern California near San Francisco. Black-billed magpies occur throughout the west, north into Canada and Alaska.

The black-billed magpie is very successful. I tell folks inquiring about them at the Wild Bird Center that their favorite food is anything they can swallow. Specialist birds, like the hummingbird, must migrate from Utah in winter when flowers are not in bloom. Magpies enjoy Utah throughout the year.

It is a very large bird -- 22 inches high and a wing span of 24 inches. Its tail can be 12 inches long. The head, bill, breast, back, rump, legs and feet are black. The belly and sides are a contrasting white. Its long tail is an iridescent green mixed with black and the wings show a blue tint in good light.

They build a domed nest of twigs lined with mud that can weigh more than 50 pounds and is often reused. Other birds, like raptors and great horned owls, will use them as nest platforms, too. The female will incubate seven to 13 greenish gray brown eggs. Chicks are fed by both sexes and fledge with 32 days.

In the winter, magpies travel in extended family groups that include siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins. This is another factor in their success, as they have adult birds teaching and protecting them for sometime. They also form communal roosts.

Magpies often announce the presence of backyard predators like cats, which they will dive bomb until they leave the area. I have also watched them use predators to provide a meal. On one occasion, I saw four magpies on Antelope Island flying in front of two hunting coyotes across a sage brush meadow. They were very much like a hunter's bird dog. They located and harassed a jack rabbit, until it moved and caught the attention of the hunting coyotes. The magpies stood and waited for an opportunity to share some of the bounty.

A magpie requiem is a memorable experience. Chuck Trost, a retired ornithologist from Idaho State University, is the world's leading expert on magpies who has written about this phenomenon. The birds will gather around a dead magpie while they vocalize and pull at its feathers.

He believes it is a part of the social hierarchy of these intelligent birds. They recognize one another. If you are a subordinate, this may signal a chance to move up a notch in the pecking order.

Bill Fenimore is owner of the Wild Bird Center and author of Backyard Birds of Utah. Meet him at the Layton store for a free Bird Walk to the USU Botanical Gardens on March 14 at 10 a.m.