The report of a “yellow-billed” magpie made me wonder how the Yellow-billed
Magpie population is doing as they were hit extremely hard by the West Nile
Virus (WNV) outbreak that begin in 2005.
Major declines in Yellow-billed Magpies, Loggerhead Shrikes, California
Scrub-Jays, American Crows, and Oak Titmice were seen during the peak of the
outbreak in 2009. Shrikes and magpies were already declining before the
outbreak. Neither of them have recovered, though thankfully the other species
have. According to NA Breeding Bird Surveys YBMA have declined by 73% between
1966 and 2014.
According to the second link as many as 50 percent of the magpie population
were lost during the peak of the epidemic.
Thankfully magpies are very adaptable to man but with increased urbanization,
conversion of their favored oak habitat to crops like vineyards, we aren’t
making it any easier on them.
And as for it occurring as a vagrant? They are quite sedentary. While they do
tend to move around after they breed they still tend to stay near their
breeding area. And they are pretty colonial.
https://www.westernfieldornithologists.org/archive/V44/WB-Pandolfino-44(2).pdf
<https://www.westernfieldornithologists.org/archive/V44/WB-Pandolfino-44(2).pdf>
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/west-nile-virus-fells-magpies/ ;
<https://www.allaboutbirds.org/west-nile-virus-fells-magpies/>
Shawneen Finnegan
