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Black-billed Magpie

Pica hudsonia

Description:

Black-billed Magpies are slightly larger than jays with much longer, diamond-shaped tails and heavier bills. In flight, their wings seem to be too short to support their graceful flight. These birds are black and white overall with blue-green iridescent flashes in the wing and tail. The upperparts are mostly black with a white patch in the outer wing and two white stripes (“backpack straps”) on the back.

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4 Comments

EmilyMarino
EmilyMarino 10 years ago

Thanks all! This one was using it's beak as a shovel and digging through the snow to get down to the grassy roots and seed pods!

alicelongmartin
alicelongmartin 10 years ago

Nice, have never seen them in snow!

ChristyHolland
ChristyHolland 10 years ago

Beautiful, Em!!

kdpicturemaker
kdpicturemaker 10 years ago

Beautiful bird, such clean lines.

EmilyMarino
Spotted by
EmilyMarino

Lakewood, Colorado, USA

Spotted on Feb 7, 2014
Submitted on Feb 18, 2014

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