Black-billed magpie
Scientific name: Pica hudsonia (Sabine, 1823)
Overview
The black-billed magpie, also known as the American magpie, is a bird in the corvid family found in the western half of North America. It is black and white, with the wings and tail showing black areas and iridescent hints of blue and blue-green. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of Pica pica, but was separated as a species in its own in 2000 based on genetic studies.
From the Wikipedia article “Black-billed magpie”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Conservation status
Least concern on the IUCN Red List, as recorded on Wikidata, citing The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021.3.
Where it lives
The Catalogue of Life records it in: North America.
Common names
Names in other languages (8)
- Arabic
- عقعق أسود المنقار
- French
- Pie d'Amérique
- German
- Hudsonelster, Schwarzschnabelelster
- Persian
- زاغی نوکسیاه
- Portuguese
- pega-americana, pega-de-bico-preto
- Russian
- Черноклювая сорока
- Spanish
- Urraca de Hudson
- Turkish
- Kara gagalı saksağan
Related animals
Sources
-
Catalogue of Life — scientific name, classification, common names and range.
Version 2026-09-11, CC BY 4.0.
This species in the Catalogue of Life.
Citation
Bánki, O., Roskov, Y., Döring, M., Ower, G., Hernández Robles, D. R., Plata Corredor, C. A., Stjernegaard Jeppesen, T., Örn, A., Pape, T., Hobern, D., Garnett, S., Little, H., DeWalt, R. E., Miller, J., Orrell, T., Aalbu, R., Abbott, J., Aedo, C., Aescht, E., et al. (2026). Catalogue of Life (Version 2026-09-11). Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgz5n Source database: The Integrated Taxonomic Information System.
- GBIF — species page and recorded occurrences.
- Wikidata — conservation status, names in other languages. Q254057, CC0 1.0.
- Wikipedia — overview, from the article “Black-billed magpie”, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Photo — watts_photos, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. File page.
- Range map — Cephas, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. File page.
Last updated: 4 October 2026