The Yellow-billed Blue Magpie or Gold-billed Magpie (Urocissa flavirostris) is a passerine bird in the crow and jay family, Corvidae. It forms a superspecies with the Taiwan Blue Magpie and the Red-billed Blue Magpie. The species ranges across the northern parts of the Indian Subcontinent including the lower Himalayas, with a disjunct population in Vietnam.

description

Length 26 inches, including tail of about 18 inches. Sexes alike. Head, neck, and breast black, with a white patch on the nape ; remainder of lower plumage white, faintly tinged with lilac ; whole upper plumage purplish-blue, brighter on the wings and tail ; flight-feathers tipped with white, the outermost edged with thesame ; tail long and graduated, the feathers blue, broadly tipped with white, all except the very long central pair having a band of black in front of the white

distrubution

The Yellow-billed Magpie is found throughout the Himalayas from Hazara to the Brahmaputra. It is divided into two races. Of these U. f. cucullata is the better known and is found from the Western boundary of the range to Western Nepal, being a common species about most of the hill stations of the Western Himalayas, breeding in a zone from 5000 to 10,000 feet. The typical form is found from Eastern Nepal eastwards and differs in that the under parts have a darker lilac tinge ; its zone is slightly higher than that of the Western form, as it seldom occurs 'as low as 6000 feet. A resident species, but during the winter months it usually deserts the higher parts of its summer zone.From Simla eastwards the closely allied Red-billed Blue-Magpie (Urocissa melanocephala) is often found in the same areas as the yellow-billed species ; it is particularly common about Mussoorie,Tehri-Garhwal, -Kumaon, and in Nepal, and may be easily distinguished by its red beak and the greater extent of the white nape-patch.The lovely Green-Magpie (Cissa chinensis) is found in forest alongthe lower Himalayas from the Jamna eastwards and in parts of Assam,Eastern Bengal and Burma. It is brilliant green in colour (which hasa tendency to fade to blue) with a black band through the eye and red bill, wings and tail.

behaviour

The Blue-Magpies are, as may be judged from their handsome tails, essentially arboreal birds ; though, while they are most usually to be met with in heavy jungle areas, they also venture out into the trees amongst cultivation, and at times on to bare mountain sides at high elevations. They frequently feed on the ground and then adopt a curious hopping gait, with the tail held high to prevent it coming into contact with the ground. They live in parties of seven or eight birds and are very partial to particular localities, so that once a party has taken up its abode in any particular nullah or patch of forest it will generally be found there. They are very active, flying incessantly from bough to bough and not hesitating to launch high into the air when flying from ridge to ridge ; a party of these bird crossing a nullah out of gun-shot above one's head is a curious sight, with their long tails waving in the air and the light shining through the feathers. The flight is rather slow, laboured and undulating once the bird comes into the open. The food consists of small mammals, the eggs and young of other birds, insects, and wild fruits and berries of various kinds. This bird is very noisy ; the ordinary call is harsh and grating, but it has a wide variety of notes, some of which are melodious enough.

nesting

The nest is built in a fork of a tree, usually of moderate size but with dense foliage, and is difficult to find. It is a rather large and roughly constructed cup of sticks with a lining of fine grass, roots and fibres. The clutch consists of three or four eggs. The ground-colour varies from a pale, dingy yellowish-stone colour to a darkish rather reddish-stone colour, and there is very occasionally a faint greenish tinge. The markings consist of small specks, blotches, streaks, and mottlings of various shades of brown, sienna 1 or purple, and they generally tend to collect in a cap or zone about the broad end of the egg.

• 

  Yellow-billed Blue Magpie at Kullu - Manali District of Himachal Pradesh, India

• 

  at Kullu

• 

  at Kullu

• 

  at Kullu

References

• BirdLife International (2004). Urocissa flavirostris. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern

This Corvidae-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e