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Urban218 g
ID tip
The black-rumped magpie is black-and-white, with its namesake black rump, brighter plumage, stouter bill, and shorter tail being the main distinctive features from the closely related Oriental and Eurasian magpies. Its wings and tail are black with greeish-blue to purple iridescence, and large white stripes on the primary feathers visible in flight, while the flanks and central underparts are white. The wings are around 233–250 mm (9.2–9.8 in) for females and 241–259 mm (9.5–10.2 in) for males, with tails being 250 mm (9.8 in).
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
When to see the Black-rumped Magpie
One bar for each month. Filled bars are the 9 months with records; pale bars are months with none. The wide bar is April, the month with the most records.
Where to see the Black-rumped Magpie
The map shades 2 countries with regular records, and 1 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.
Recorded as a rare visitor in India.
About the Black-rumped Magpie
The black-rumped magpie is a species of magpie native to west-central China and Bhutan, and possibly also irregularly in Sikkim in India, and in eastern Nepal. It is similar to other magpies in the genus Pica, with pied plumage with bluish-green iridescent wings and tail, but differs from the other species in the genus except for Asir magpie in having no white on the rump. It was described as a species in 1840, but had long been treated as a subspecies of Eurasian magpie, before being restored to species rank in 2018. In breeding behaviour it is largely similar to other Pica magpies, laying a single brood from April to June.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Easily confused with
Maghreb MagpiePica mauritanicaThe Maghreb magpie is around 48 cm long, similar in plumage to the widespread Eurasian magpie, but with the distinct patch of vivid blue bare skin behind the eye and on the lower eye lid.
Asir MagpiePica asirensisThe Asir magpie (Pica asirensis) is about 45–46 cm (18–18 in) long, and its weight is 200–240 g (7.1–8.5 oz).
Yellow-billed MagpiePica nuttalliiIt is a medium-sized corvid, at 43–54 centimeters (17–21 in) long averaging slightly smaller than the black-billed magpie's 45–60 cm (18–24 in) but overlapping with it.
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