Birds of Seabrook Island

   The Black-billed Magpie is a large bird with a long, graduated tail. The rump, tail, and secondaries are steel blue and the scapulars and belly are white. The back, head and throat are black and the stout bill are also black. This is a wide-spread corvid of open country in the west (plains and mountains north to Alaska).
   The Yellow-billed Magpie, Pica nuttalli, differs only in the color of its bill (yellow, of course). This species has a much smaller range in coastal and central California. These two species are probably more closely related to each other than to the European (Common) Magpie, Pica pica, which more closely resembles the black-billed form.