Black-billed Magpie
(Pica hudsonia)

Overview

Summary

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The Black-billed Magpie is a common and conspicuous resident of open habitats in western Canada. It is well monitored by the Breeding Bird Survey, which shows little overall change in the population relative to about 1970. There are no pressing conservation concerns for the species at this time. This species has been identified as a priority for conservation and/or stewardship in one or more Bird Conservation Region Strategies in Canada.

Designations

Population status

Population estimate

Distribution maps

• BirdLife International / NatureServe
• Breeding Bird Survey (BBS): Relative Abundance and Breeding Distribution (1993-2012)

Migration strategy, occurrence

Responsibility for conservation of world population

Conservation and management

The Black-billed Magpie has long been vilified for its practice of raiding other birds' nests to eat eggs and nestlings (Trost 1999). Persecuted as "vermin", past attempts to lower magpie populations through bounty schemes and other methods have proven ineffective (Trost 1999) and are no longer practiced.

Bird conservation region strategies

Environment and Climate Change Canada and partners have developed Bird Conservation Region Strategies in each of Canada’s Bird Conservation Regions (BCRs). In these strategies, selected species are identified as priorities for one or more of the following reasons:

• conservation concerns (i.e., species vulnerable due to population size, distribution, population trend, abundance, or threats)
• stewardship responsibilities (i.e., species that typify the regional avifauna or have a large proportion of their range or population in the sub-region)
• management concerns (i.e., species that require ongoing management because of their socio-economic importance as game species, or because of their impacts on other species or habitats)
• other concerns (i.e., species deemed a priority by regional experts for other reasons than those listed above or because they are listed as species at risk or concern at the provincial level)

Select any of the sub-regions below to view the BCR strategy for additional details.

References

• Trost, C.H. 1999. Black-billed Magpie (Pica hudsonia), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Trost, C.H. 1999. Black-billed Magpie (Pica hudsonia), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. (Link)