Yellow-billed Magpie

Pica nuttalli

Order PASSERIFORMES - Family CORVIDAE

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

Although the Yellow-billed Magpie is common and conspicuous in the open oak woodlands of central and southern California, it is found nowhere else in the world.

Cool Facts

• The Yellow-billed Magpie is omnivorous, eating a variety of plant and animal foods. Insects, however, make up most of the diet. The Yellow-billed Magpie has been seen pecking insects off the backs of mule deer.

• The covered nest requires maintenance to the canopy throughout the nesting season. The Yellow-billed Magpie usually builds a new nest each year, but if a nest fails early in the breeding season the pair will refurbish an old nest for a renesting attempt rather than build a new one.

Description

• Size: 43-54 cm (17-21 in)
• Wingspan: 61 cm (24 in)
• Weight: 150-170 g (5.3-6.0 ounces)

• Large black-and-white songbird with a long dark tail.
• Bill and area around eye bright yellow.

• Head, breast, back, tail, and undertail black.
• Chest, belly, and above wing white.
• Primaries white, obvious in flight.
• Tail long and graduated.
• Wings and tail with blue-green iridescence.
• Bare patches of yellow skin around and behind eyes.
• Eyes black.
• Legs black.

Sex Differences

Sexes alike in plumage, but male averages slightly larger.

Immature

Immature similar to adult, but less iridescent and with a brownish wash on head and back.

Similar Species

Black-billed Magpie nearly identical, except it has a black bill, and black skin around the eye, and is slightly larger.

Sound

Call a harsh, chattering "wock, wock wock-a-wock, wock, pjur, weer, weer."

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Resident in California west of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, primarily in Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys.

Habitat

Oak savanna, open areas with large trees, and along streams. Also forages in grassland, pasture, fields, and orchards.

Food

Ground-dwelling invertebrates, grain, acorns, carrion, and small mammals.

Behavior

Foraging

Forages primarily on ground. Holds food with feet and pecks it.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Nest a domed bowl, made primarily of sticks and mud. Lined with hair, grass, bark, or rootlets. Placed high in large tree, in small colonies.

Egg Description

Greenish blue or olive with dark spots and speckles.

Clutch Size

Usually 6-7 eggs. Range: 4-7.

Condition at Hatching

Naked and helpless.

Conservation Status

Populations stable, should be monitered because of the species' limited range.

Other Names

Pie à bec jaune (French)
Urraca (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Reynolds, M. D. 1995. Yellow-billed Magpie (Pica nuttalli). In The Birds of North America, No. 180 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.