Bird of the Week – Black-billed Magpie
WC is staying with corvids – birds of the crow family – a little longer, this time we’ll have a look at the Black-billed Magpie.
Black-billed Magpie, southwest of Delta Junction
A bird of myth and legend, like the Common Raven, the species is expanding its range, breeding in the Fairbanks area in recent years. The species readily habituates to people, in fact, when Lewis and Clark first encountered magpies in 1804 in South Dakota, these birds were bold, entering tents to steal meat and taking food from the hand.
Magpies sometimes seem to WC to model themselves, showing off their flashy feathers for a photographer. How else do you explain this photo?
Black-billed Magpie, Nabesna Road, Alaska
Camera geek stuff:
Photo #1: f8, 1/250, ISO 200
Photo #2: f11, 1/500, ISO 250
For more bird photos, please visit Frozen Feather Images.
If you talk to them, they talk back and follow you. Very curious birds. I once carried on a “conversation” with a magpie as it followed me along for about a mile.
Is that what is referred to as “going bush”? 🙂
http://www.native-languages.org/legends-magpie.htm
Right busy little Magpies.
http://www.perspectivesmagazine.sk/news/ravens-and-crows-in-mythology-folklore-and-religion/
What’s the fable behind the long tail? Gotta be some legend passed down through the centuries.
Yes, beautiful birds have been known to strike a pose. Stick with the corvids, WC, I love them all!! I don’t suppose you get jackdaws in AK.