Re: [cobirds] Magpies

I'll chime in on the overall topic of Black-billed Magpie in Colorado. I've pondered how I typically see magpies when I'm down in the Denver metro (in parks and neighborhoods), while they are relatively unusual, and almost always high flyovers, where I live in Fort Collins. So I dug in on the eBird Science pages and learned several interesting tidbits based on eBird data from 2008-2022: https://science.ebird.org/en/status-and-trends/species/bkbmag1/abundance-map?week=1

• The mean relative abundance across the entire state is 0.6 (this estimates how many magpie an expert eBirder would detect on a 1 hour, 2 kilometer traveling checklist at the optimal time of day).
• Most of central Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont, and Pueblo have relative abundance values of 0.
• Most of Boulder, Denver, and Colorado Springs have relative abundance values between 1 and 3.

In the "magpie deserts" the situation is not really uniform, and relative abundance increases rapidly as you move just a bit up into the foothills and sometimes as you move east. I'm not really sure of the reasons behind these differences, or if some have experienced these changes firsthand (e.g. either magpie declining in Fort Collins or arriving in Denver) but overall the data paints a picture of slow decline across the state. Cornell estimates a statewide magpie abundance decline of approximately 9% between 2011-2021.

Thanks for the fun magpie discussion and the chance to dig in on what we can learn when talented scientists tap into all the data we submit. Don't forget the "common" species on your checklists!

-Judd

Fort Collins, CO

On Sun, Aug 18, 2024 at 7:37 AM Patrick O'Driscoll <patodrisk@gmail.com> wrote:

This might be in the category of obvious, but the robust Black-billed Magpie population in Denver City Park (well more than a dozen active nests each spring/summer) appears to flock up in mid-late summer once the fledglings are able to forage on their own.

Then most of  the magpies appear to disappear for a couple of weeks -- probably into surrounding neighborhoods, including City Park West and even as far east as my house in Denver's Hale neighborhood, a mile away as the magpie flies. I've seen them swarm down the block, picking through lawns, shrubbery, trees as they go.

Yesterday, a flock of at least 32 showed up on the east side of City Park, moving through park lawns and a recovering patch of wild grass inside the fenced-off construction site of the park's new "Nature Play" area. It was built (opening this fall) in good bird habitat east of the Ferril Lake playground and below the SW corner of the Museum of Nature + Science. Fingers are crossed that the habitat may recover yet with the return of regularly flowing water in a man-made "creek" that winds down down through it.

A nice spot for magpies and everything else . . .  

Patrick O'Driscoll

Denver

 

On Fri, Aug 16, 2024 at 2:17 PM Jared Del Rosso <jared.delrosso@gmail.com> wrote:

As common as they and as much as most long-time CO residents shrug off magpies, posts about them never fail to generate the greatest number of genuinely interested replies!

Not much for me to add beyond this observation about us birders and the wonder that magpies seem to inspire in us. Around western Centennial, they seem to start forming roving flocks over the summer. It's neat. Blue Jays seem to do this, too. While I haven't made special note of these in eBird, a few weeks ago, I spotted nearly a dozen magpies on top of a storefront in Streets of Southglenn. A flock of nearly the same number of Blue Jays moved through my yard a few weeks ago. 

- Jared Del Rosso

Centennial, CO

On Thursday, August 15, 2024 at 8:12:02 AM UTC-6 Charlie Chase wrote:

Warm afternoon at the Arsenal.   Had a small group of 8 Magpies feeding on and around the Bison lounging at the Arsenal.  As a bull was rolling the Magpies sitting on him simply adjusted to stay on whatever side was up.  In the larger herd were about 350 starlings also feeding on and around the resting herd.  No birds in the image below-that picture was useless.

Charlie

Denver

On Wed, Aug 14, 2024 at 5:15 PM 'Hugh Kingery' via Colorado Birds <cob...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

They showed up this morning in big numbers. We counted 36 magpies -- after not seeing any for a while.

Hugh

--
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To post to this group, send email to cob...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds
* All posts should be signed with the poster's full name and city. Include bird species and location in the subject line when appropriate.
* Join Colorado Field Ornithologists https://cobirds.org/membership/
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+u...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/2128268028.4183268.1723677296637%40mail.yahoo.com.

--
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds
* All posts should be signed with the poster's full name and city. Include bird species and location in the subject line when appropriate.
* Join Colorado Field Ornithologists https://cobirds.org/membership/
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/74c61fed-86d6-44a7-8a94-354beda804d5n%40googlegroups.com.

--
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds
* All posts should be signed with the poster's full name and city. Include bird species and location in the subject line when appropriate.
* Join Colorado Field Ornithologists https://cobirds.org/membership/
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAMNEzJN4v%3Db1HQJpe9wFeLL_sLJEJBx2R7SD%2BfRtmQWjyyRK_A%40mail.gmail.com.

--
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds
* All posts should be signed with the poster's full name and city. Include bird species and location in the subject line when appropriate.
* Join Colorado Field Ornithologists https://cobirds.org/membership/
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CALoJqVq8%3DbcAO0Lq_pynObqeAiH3sVC9Tb%2BOOv5oeKJ2_rGKjQ%40mail.gmail.com.