Magpie Madness

How better to define and excite a beautiful landscape than with a bird of paradise?

Those who live among black-billed magpies may become inured to their charms. It would take centuries to inure me to a bird this magnificent.

John and Durrae moved to Bozeman from Pennsylvania. They've lived here almost as long as we've lived in Ohio--17 years or so. But they still love the magpies.

They love them so much they buy big bags of cat food to keep them fat and sassy.


Well, who wouldn't want to see something like this on their deck a couple of times a day? The air rang with their jaunty jake-jake calls.

Note the bit of kibble in mid-gulp on the right-hand bird...


I could have spent days capturing flight images of magpies through the sliding glass doors. Had it not been cold, I'd have loved to open them and sit just inside, the house as my blind.

These birds are one big flash pattern. Pure white primary feathers are rather rare; generally the flight feathers of birds are dark, because melanin strengthens them, and the primaries, being propellers, take the brunt of the wear. They do have a nifty black picotee edge, which I'm sure helps with preventing too much wear. You can see that edging in Photo 2.

The pied coloration of magpies has to do with sending visual signals over vast open terrain, with gathering one's compatriots for raids and mischief. Nothing translates like black and white in these huge, often low-contrast spaces.

Magpies are a gift to the Montana landscape. Though I'm sure our nesting songbirds would disagree (magpies have an appetite for eggs and chicks), a few magpies sure would dress up the meadows of Ohio. Bet they'd love Zick Dough.