Oriental Magpie vs Yellow-billed Magpie

Oriental Magpie

Pica serica

218 gUrban

It is 45 cm long. Compared to the Eurasian magpie, it is slightly smaller, with a proportionally shorter tail and longer bill and tarsi (lower legs), and darker with less white in the plumage. The back, tail, and particularly the remiges show (according to source) either bluer, less green iridescence compared to Eurasian magpie, or conversely, more green. The rump plumage is mostly black, with narrow, often greyish-white band, which connects the white shoulder patches as in its relatives. The Oriental magpie has the same call as the Eurasian magpie, though somewhat softer.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Vladislav Isaev · 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: Oriental Magpie and Yellow-billed Magpie.