Yellow-billed Magpie
Encyclopedia
The Yellow-billed Magpie, Pica nuttalli, is a large bird in the crow family
found only in California
. It inhabits the Central Valley and the adjacent chaparral
foothills and mountains. Apart from its having a yellow bill and a yellow streak around the eye, it is virtually identical to the Black-billed Magpie
(Pica hudsonia) found in much of the rest of North America
.
The scientific name commemorates the English naturalist Thomas Nuttall
.
analysis (Lee et al., 2003) indicates a close relationship between the Yellow-billed Magpie and the Black-billed Magpie, rather than between the outwardly very similar Black-billed and European Magpie
s (P. pica); the two American forms could be considered as one species.
The Korea
n subspecies
of the European Magpie (P. p. sericea) is more distantly related to all other (including North American) forms judging from the molecular evidence, and thus, either the North American forms are maintained as specifically distinct and the Korean (and possibly related) subspecies are also elevated to species status, or all magpies are considered to be subspecies of a single species, Pica pica.
Combining fossil
evidence (Miller & Bowman, 1956) and paleobiogeographical
considerations with the molecular data indicates that the Yellow-billed Magpie's ancestors became isolated in California quite soon after the ancestral magpies colonized North America (which probably happened some 3-4 mya) due to early ice age
s and the ongoing uplift of the Sierra Nevada, but that during interglacial
s there occurred some gene flow
between the Yellow- and Black-billed magpies until reproductive isolation
was fully achieved in the Pleistocene
.
The Yellow-billed Magpie is adapted to the hot summers of California's Central Valley and experiences less heat stress than the Black-billed Magpie.
and roosts communally. There may be a cluster of communal roosts in one general area made up of a central roost containing many birds and several outlying roosts with fewer.
Yellow-billed Magpie flocks are known to engage in funeral-like behavior for their dead.
Extra-pair copulation is not uncommon among Yellow-billed Magpies. After mating, a male will exhibit mate-guarding, preventing the female from mating with other males until she lays the first egg. The clutch
contains 5 to 7 eggs which are incubated
by the female for 16 to 18 days. Both parents feed the nestlings a diet of mostly insects until fledging
occurs in 30 days.
birds forage on the ground, mainly eating insects, especially grasshopper
s, but also carrion, acorn
s and fruit in fall and winter. They are attracted to recently butchered carcasses
on farms and ranches. They pick through garbage
at landfills and dumping sites, and sometimes hunt rodent
s.
. Between 2004 and 2006 it is estimated that 50% of all Yellow-billed Magpies died of the virus. Because the bird tends to roost near water bodies such as river
s, it is often exposed to mosquito
es.
Corvidae
Corvidae is a cosmopolitan family of oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies, choughs and nutcrackers. The common English names used are corvids or the crow family , and there are over 120 species...
found only in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. It inhabits the Central Valley and the adjacent chaparral
Chaparral
Chaparral is a shrubland or heathland plant community found primarily in the U.S. state of California and in the northern portion of the Baja California peninsula, Mexico...
foothills and mountains. Apart from its having a yellow bill and a yellow streak around the eye, it is virtually identical to the Black-billed Magpie
Black-billed Magpie
The Black-billed Magpie is a bird in the crow family that inhabits the western half of North America. It is notable for its domed nests, and for being one of only four North American songbirds whose tail makes up half or more of the total body length The Black-billed Magpie (Pica hudsonia) is a...
(Pica hudsonia) found in much of the rest of North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
.
The scientific name commemorates the English naturalist Thomas Nuttall
Thomas Nuttall
Thomas Nuttall was an English botanist and zoologist, who lived and worked in America from 1808 until 1841....
.
Taxonomy
mtDNA sequenceDNA sequence
The sequence or primary structure of a nucleic acid is the composition of atoms that make up the nucleic acid and the chemical bonds that bond those atoms. Because nucleic acids, such as DNA and RNA, are unbranched polymers, this specification is equivalent to specifying the sequence of...
analysis (Lee et al., 2003) indicates a close relationship between the Yellow-billed Magpie and the Black-billed Magpie, rather than between the outwardly very similar Black-billed and European Magpie
European Magpie
The European Magpie, Eurasian Magpie, or Common Magpie, , is a resident breeding bird throughout Europe, much of Asia and northwest Africa. It is one of several birds in the crow family named as magpies, and belongs to the Holarctic radiation of "monochrome" magpies...
s (P. pica); the two American forms could be considered as one species.
The Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
n subspecies
Subspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...
of the European Magpie (P. p. sericea) is more distantly related to all other (including North American) forms judging from the molecular evidence, and thus, either the North American forms are maintained as specifically distinct and the Korean (and possibly related) subspecies are also elevated to species status, or all magpies are considered to be subspecies of a single species, Pica pica.
Combining fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
evidence (Miller & Bowman, 1956) and paleobiogeographical
Biogeography
Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species , organisms, and ecosystems in space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities vary in a highly regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, isolation and habitat area...
considerations with the molecular data indicates that the Yellow-billed Magpie's ancestors became isolated in California quite soon after the ancestral magpies colonized North America (which probably happened some 3-4 mya) due to early ice age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
s and the ongoing uplift of the Sierra Nevada, but that during interglacial
Interglacial
An Interglacial period is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age...
s there occurred some gene flow
Gene flow
In population genetics, gene flow is the transfer of alleles of genes from one population to another.Migration into or out of a population may be responsible for a marked change in allele frequencies...
between the Yellow- and Black-billed magpies until reproductive isolation
Reproductive isolation
The mechanisms of reproductive isolation or hybridization barriers are a collection of mechanisms, behaviors and physiological processes that prevent the members of two different species that cross or mate from producing offspring, or which ensure that any offspring that may be produced is not...
was fully achieved in the Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
.
The Yellow-billed Magpie is adapted to the hot summers of California's Central Valley and experiences less heat stress than the Black-billed Magpie.
Behaviour
The Yellow-billed Magpie is gregariousSocial
The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...
and roosts communally. There may be a cluster of communal roosts in one general area made up of a central roost containing many birds and several outlying roosts with fewer.
Yellow-billed Magpie flocks are known to engage in funeral-like behavior for their dead.
Breeding
The Yellow-billed Magpie prefers groves of tall trees along rivers and near open areas, though in some cities they have begun to nest in vacant lots and other weedy places. A pair of birds builds a dome-shaped nest with sticks and mud on a high branch. Nests may be 14 meters above the ground and are sometimes built far out on long branches to prevent predators from reaching them. They nest in small colonies, or occasionally alone. Even when nesting close to other birds they may exhibit some territorial behavior. These birds are permanent residents and do not usually wander far outside of their breeding range.Extra-pair copulation is not uncommon among Yellow-billed Magpies. After mating, a male will exhibit mate-guarding, preventing the female from mating with other males until she lays the first egg. The clutch
Clutch (eggs)
A clutch of eggs refers to all the eggs produced by birds or reptiles, often at a single time, particularly those laid in a nest.In birds, destruction of a clutch by predators, , results in double-clutching...
contains 5 to 7 eggs which are incubated
Avian incubation
Incubation refers to the process by which certain oviparous animals hatch their eggs, and to the development of the embryo within the egg. The most vital factor of incubation is the constant temperature required for its development over a specific period. Especially in domestic fowl, the act of...
by the female for 16 to 18 days. Both parents feed the nestlings a diet of mostly insects until fledging
Fledge
Fledge is the stage in a young bird's life when the feathers and wing muscles are sufficiently developed for flight. It also describes the act of a chick's parents raising it to a fully grown state...
occurs in 30 days.
Food and feeding
These omnivorousOmnivore
Omnivores are species that eat both plants and animals as their primary food source...
birds forage on the ground, mainly eating insects, especially grasshopper
Grasshopper
The grasshopper is an insect of the suborder Caelifera in the order Orthoptera. To distinguish it from bush crickets or katydids, it is sometimes referred to as the short-horned grasshopper...
s, but also carrion, acorn
Acorn
The acorn, or oak nut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives . It usually contains a single seed , enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne in a cup-shaped cupule. Acorns vary from 1–6 cm long and 0.8–4 cm broad...
s and fruit in fall and winter. They are attracted to recently butchered carcasses
Carrion
Carrion refers to the carcass of a dead animal. Carrion is an important food source for large carnivores and omnivores in most ecosystems. Examples of carrion-eaters include vultures, hawks, eagles, hyenas, Virginia Opossum, Tasmanian Devils, coyotes, Komodo dragons, and burying beetles...
on farms and ranches. They pick through garbage
Waste
Waste is unwanted or useless materials. In biology, waste is any of the many unwanted substances or toxins that are expelled from living organisms, metabolic waste; such as urea, sweat or feces. Litter is waste which has been disposed of improperly...
at landfills and dumping sites, and sometimes hunt rodent
Rodent
Rodentia is an order of mammals also known as rodents, characterised by two continuously growing incisors in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing....
s.
Diseases
This bird is extremely susceptible to West Nile virusWest Nile virus
West Nile virus is a virus of the family Flaviviridae. Part of the Japanese encephalitis antigenic complex of viruses, it is found in both tropical and temperate regions. It mainly infects birds, but is known to infect humans, horses, dogs, cats, bats, chipmunks, skunks, squirrels, domestic...
. Between 2004 and 2006 it is estimated that 50% of all Yellow-billed Magpies died of the virus. Because the bird tends to roost near water bodies such as river
River
A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...
s, it is often exposed to mosquito
Mosquito
Mosquitoes are members of a family of nematocerid flies: the Culicidae . The word Mosquito is from the Spanish and Portuguese for little fly...
es.
Conservation
The IUCN classifies the bird as a species of least concern, but the Nature Conservancy places it in the vulnerable category. Besides West Nile Virus, threats include loss of habitat and rodent poison. The bird has a limited area of distribution but is widespread throughout the area and still common in many places.External links
Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern.- Lee, Sang-im; Parr, Cynthia S.; Hwang, Youna; Mindell, David P. & Choea, Jae C. (2003): Phylogeny of magpies (genus Pica) inferred from mtDNA data. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 29: 250-257. PDF fulltext
- Miller, Alden H. & Bowman, Robert I. (1956): A Fossil Magpie from the Pleistocene of Texas. CondorCondor (journal)The Condor is a peer-reviewed quarterly scientific journal covering ornithology and published by the Cooper Ornithological Society.-History:...
58(2): 164-165. PDF fulltext - Yellow-billed magpie (Pica nuttalli) on the National Audubon SocietyNational Audubon SocietyThe National Audubon Society is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation. Incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organizations in the world and uses science, education and grassroots advocacy to advance its conservation mission...
's watchlist - Yellow-billed Magpie photo gallery VIREO