Maghreb Magpie vs Yellow-billed Magpie

Maghreb Magpie

Pica mauritanica

Medium217 gUrban

The 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. The white patch on the scapular ('shoulder') feathers is smaller (though not as small as in the Asir magpie of Arabia), as is the white belly patch. The blue skin around the eye is not entirely unique, as it is also recorded occasionally in the Iberian subspecies of the Eurasian magpie Pica pica melanotos, particularly in southern Spain.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Adi Peter · CC BY 4.0

Yellow-billed Magpie

Pica nuttallii

It 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. Like other magpies in the genus Pica, it has pied plumage, with black head, back, wings, and tail, and white belly and shoulders. The black feathering, particularly the tail and wing feathers, are glossed iridescent in good light, reflecting variably green, blue, purple, or bronzed, depending on the angle of the light.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: unknown · CC BY 2.5

Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Maghreb Magpie and Yellow-billed Magpie.