Yellow-billed Blue Magpie (Urocissa flavirostris)
Illustration redrawn by AI from a real photograph

Yellow-billed Blue Magpie

Urocissa flavirostris (Blyth, 1846)

≈44 cmLength149 gWeight

It has a black head and a blue-purple back, with the tail making up more than half its body length.

Busiest months: April · Most records: Bhutan, India, China

Looks like Red-billed Blue Magpie

Least Concern

How to identify

Field marks

  1. Head, neck and breast black, with a white patch on the nape
  2. Upperparts purple-blue; wings and tail brighter
  3. Underparts white with a slight pale purple tinge
  4. Tail long; blue feathers white-tipped

Male, female and young

Sexes similar.

Similar species

Red-billed Blue Magpie
Red-billed Blue Magpie

Its bill is not red, and the white patch on its nape is smaller than in Red-billed Blue Magpie.

Where and when it's recorded

Busiest months: April · Most records: Bhutan, India, China

Yellow-billed Blue Magpie has been recorded at 94 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 6 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

  1. Munsyari – Bheema WodeyarIndia748 records
  2. Hike to Tiger's Nest MonasteryBhutan315 records
  3. ChelelaBhutan294 records
More places
  1. Dochula PassBhutan293 records
  2. Dochula – Royal Botanical ParkBhutan288 records
  3. PelelaBhutan276 records
  4. Margalla Hills Trail 5Pakistan139 records
  5. Sengor – camp and upper Lingmethan RdBhutan95 records
  6. Jigme Dorji NP – Cheri valleyBhutan58 records
  7. Australian Base Camp - Raptor Migration SiteNepal57 records

Countries and regions with the most records

BhutanIndiaChinaNepalPakistanMyanmar (Burma)

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The yellow-billed blue-magpie or gold-billed magpie (Urocissa flavirostris) is a passerine bird in the family Corvidae, along with crows and jays. It forms a superspecies with the Taiwan (China) blue magpie and the red-billed blue magpie. The species' range covers the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent, including the lower Himalayan foothills, with a disjunct population in Vietnam.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions

How big is the Yellow-billed Blue Magpie?

The Yellow-billed Blue Magpie is about ≈44 cm long and weighs around 149 g.

Where does the Yellow-billed Blue Magpie live?

Its breeding range: Oriental: Himalayas. It is most often recorded in Bhutan, India and China.

When is the best time to see the Yellow-billed Blue Magpie?

At the hotspots we track, it is recorded most in April (Northern Hemisphere).

Is the Yellow-billed Blue Magpie endangered?

The IUCN Red List classifies the Yellow-billed Blue Magpie as Least Concern.

What does the Yellow-billed Blue Magpie eat?

Main food: Omnivore.

What family is the Yellow-billed Blue Magpie in?

It belongs to the family Crows, Jays (Corvidae), order Passerines (Passeriformes).

At a glance

Length
≈44 cm
Weight
149 g
Habitat
Forest
Diet
Omnivore
Lifestyle
Perches in trees
Migration
Resident (barely migrates)
Conservation
Least Concern
More measurements
Wing
185 mm
Tail
392 mm
Bill
39 mm
Tarsus
48 mm

Averages from the AVONET dataset; length from field guides where available.

Range

Oriental: Himalayas

Breeding range, IOC World Bird List 15.2

Subspecies · 1
  • Urocissa flavirostris flavirostris Nepal to n Myanmar and s China

Classification

Order
Passerines Passeriformes
Family
Crows, Jays Corvidae
Genus
Urocissa

Other birds in the genus Urocissa

Sri Lanka Blue MagpieSri Lanka Blue MagpieUrocissa ornataTaiwan Blue MagpieTaiwan Blue MagpieUrocissa caeruleaRed-billed Blue MagpieRed-billed Blue MagpieUrocissa erythrorynchaWhite-winged MagpieWhite-winged MagpieUrocissa whiteheadiMalayan Black MagpieMalayan Black MagpiePlatysmurus leucopterusBornean Black MagpieBornean Black MagpiePlatysmurus aterrimusSiberian JaySiberian JayPerisoreus infaustusSichuan JaySichuan JayPerisoreus internigransCanada JayCanada JayPerisoreus canadensisBlack-collared JayBlack-collared JayCyanolyca armillata
Yellow-billed Blue Magpie

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Free to use with credit: “Illustration: Bird Album (birdalbum.com)”. Drawn by AI from a reference photo by Dibyendu Ash. ↗

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