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Black-billed magpie
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. It is black and white, with the wings and tail showing black areas and iridescent hints of blue and blue-green. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of Pica pica (Eurasian magpie), but was separated as a species in its own in 2000 based on genetic studies.
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 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 nests 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. 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 by the IUCN, and they are commonly seen throughout their range.
The black-billed magpie was originally described in 1823 as "Corvus Hudsonius, Hudson's Bay Magpie" by Joseph Sabine in his report of an expedition to the North American Arctic. In previous encounters with the bird prior to its formal description, it had been presumed to be of the same bird as the magpies from Europe; Sabine wrote of it:
A new and hitherto undescribed species. The writer of this notice was acquainted with its existence previous to the departure of the Expedition, having been some time before in possession of a specimen from Hudson's Bay. It has no doubt been confounded with the Common Magpie (Corvus Pica,) to which it bears much resemblance. Pennant in the Arctic Zoology mentions the Magpie as occasionally visiting Hudson's Bay, where it is called by the natives the Heart Bird, but he does not notice any difference in its appearance. Forster, in the Philosophical Transactions in 1772, also says that the Magpie, then received from Hudson's Bay, did not differ from the European one. … The Hudson's Bay Magpie is of less size in all its parts than the Common Magpie, except in its tail, which exceeds that of its congener in length; but the most remarkable and obvious difference is, in a loose tuft of greyish and white feathers on the back.
Based on the black-billed magpie's strong similarity to the European magpies, but also with the slight differences in smaller size and longer tail and wing length that Sabine observed, it was later reclassified as a subspecies of the European bird; with the separation of the magpies as a genus of their own (rather than in the crow genus Corvus as Sabine had done), its scientific name was generally cited as Pica pica hudsonia by the late 19th century. The generic name Pica is the Latin word for magpie, and the specific name hudsonia is from the Hudson Bay, where it was first distinguished as distinct.
The word "magpie" comes from a combination of "Mag", a nickname for Margaret, and "pie", the Middle English 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 calls were thought to sound like a person chattering.
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Black-billed magpie
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. It is black and white, with the wings and tail showing black areas and iridescent hints of blue and blue-green. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of Pica pica (Eurasian magpie), but was separated as a species in its own in 2000 based on genetic studies.
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 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 nests 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. 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 by the IUCN, and they are commonly seen throughout their range.
The black-billed magpie was originally described in 1823 as "Corvus Hudsonius, Hudson's Bay Magpie" by Joseph Sabine in his report of an expedition to the North American Arctic. In previous encounters with the bird prior to its formal description, it had been presumed to be of the same bird as the magpies from Europe; Sabine wrote of it:
A new and hitherto undescribed species. The writer of this notice was acquainted with its existence previous to the departure of the Expedition, having been some time before in possession of a specimen from Hudson's Bay. It has no doubt been confounded with the Common Magpie (Corvus Pica,) to which it bears much resemblance. Pennant in the Arctic Zoology mentions the Magpie as occasionally visiting Hudson's Bay, where it is called by the natives the Heart Bird, but he does not notice any difference in its appearance. Forster, in the Philosophical Transactions in 1772, also says that the Magpie, then received from Hudson's Bay, did not differ from the European one. … The Hudson's Bay Magpie is of less size in all its parts than the Common Magpie, except in its tail, which exceeds that of its congener in length; but the most remarkable and obvious difference is, in a loose tuft of greyish and white feathers on the back.
Based on the black-billed magpie's strong similarity to the European magpies, but also with the slight differences in smaller size and longer tail and wing length that Sabine observed, it was later reclassified as a subspecies of the European bird; with the separation of the magpies as a genus of their own (rather than in the crow genus Corvus as Sabine had done), its scientific name was generally cited as Pica pica hudsonia by the late 19th century. The generic name Pica is the Latin word for magpie, and the specific name hudsonia is from the Hudson Bay, where it was first distinguished as distinct.
The word "magpie" comes from a combination of "Mag", a nickname for Margaret, and "pie", the Middle English 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 calls were thought to sound like a person chattering.