 Breeding evidence |
 Relative abundance |
 Probability of observation |
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Click on plot to view table of mean abundance
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Number of squares
Long-term BBS trends
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-0.721 (-1.4 - -0.0397)|
Mean abundance (number of birds detected per 5 min. point count) and percentage of squares occupied by region Bird Conservation Regions [abund. plot]
[%squares plot]
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Atlas Results
Black-billed Magpies were predominantly observed south of the boreal forest, where they were common wherever trees and shrubs provided suitable nesting habitat. In the boreal forest, they were occasionally found in the southern fringes and were observed in or near several northern communities and mining sites as far north as Uranium City. Breeding was confirmed in Stony Rapids, where recently fledged young were spotted in 2019. Hardy year-round residents, Black-billed Magpies were observed carrying nesting material as early as 29 February in Saskatoon.
Excerpts Adapted from the Birds of Saskatchewan:
Black-billed Magpies are striking, large, noisy, long-tailed, year-round corvids that build large domed nests. Highly social, they are seldom seen alone. Magpies are intelligent and aggressive omnivores eating carrion, insects, berries, seeds, and the eggs and young of other birds. Magpies are permanent residents over a wide range that extends from Alaska and extreme southwestern Ontario to northern New Mexico; given their ubiquity in western North America, they are unaccountably absent from the eastern half of the continent.
The Black-billed Magpie is a year-round inhabitant of thickets, shrubs, and trees in open places, edges of woodland, and urban areas. In winter rural Black-billed Magpies are most often seen around feedlots, roadkills, and garbage dumps. In the north they are seen mainly near human habitation (Gerrard et al. 1996), or at hunter and wolf kills.
A common permanent resident in the grasslands, parklands and transition forest. Further north, in the rest of the southern boreal region, they are uncommon and restricted to the vicinity of settlements during summer, but widespread during the winter? (Smith 1996). Casually reported in all seasons in the northern boreal forest, they have yet to be recorded in the subarctic woodland.
Original text by Kelwin A. Wylie. Text adapted by Daniel J. Sawatzky
Read more about the Black-billed Magpie in the Birds of Saskatchewan here.
Recommended citation: Latremouille, L. M. 2025. Black-billed Magpie in Latremouille, L. M., S. L. Van Wilgenburg, C. B. Jardine, D. Lepage, A. R. Couturier, D. Evans, D. Iles, and K. L. Drake (eds.). 2025. The Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Saskatchewan, 2017-2021. Birds Canada. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan https://sk.birdatlas.ca/accounts/speciesaccount.jsp?sp=BBMA&lang=en [09 Nov 2025]
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