Black-billed Magpie

Black-billed Magpie are known for their impressive aerial maneuvers, consisting of long, sweeping flights accentuated by their striking white wing patches and elongated tails. They display territorial behavior by perching conspicuously atop trees, akin to the vocal territorial announcements of other birds. On the ground, black-billed Magpie's movement is characterized by a distinctive confident strut. Socially, black-billed Magpie may congregate in flocks, participating in communal living and engage in cooperative behaviors, such as mobbing predators. Hierarchies within these groups are established through physical displays, with males asserting dominance via a specific stretch display, showing off their white eyelids, and wing and tail signals. Aggressive interactions are further communicated by flickering or quivering their white wing patches and tail feathers. Courtship involves similar tail displays and is initiated by the female through food solicitations, leading to the male's courtship feeding. Remarkably, black-billed Magpie are largely monogamous, with the male actively guarding its partner during breeding to prevent extra-pair copulation. One of the most extraordinary behaviors is the 'funeral' ritual, where upon discovering a deceased black-billed Magpie, an individual will vocalize loudly to summon others, resulting in a temporary gathering that exhibits collective mourning behaviors before dispersing in silence.

Black-billed magpies range in the north from coastal southern Alaska, central British Columbia, and the southern halves of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, through the Rocky Mountains down south to all the Rocky Mountain states including New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and some bordering states as well. The range extends as far east as northern Minnesota and Iowa, with casual records in northern Wisconsin and upper Michigan, but is thought to be limited further east and south by high temperature and humidity.

The species is not threatened and in some areas it has benefited from forest fragmentation and agricultural developments. Like many corvids, however, it is susceptible to West Nile virus. In Canada, black-billed magpies do not appear on the list of birds protected by the Migratory Birds Convention Act. Provincial laws also apply, but in Alberta, magpies may be hunted and trapped without a license.