Black-billed Magpie in London!

We took a slight detour from a traveling route on Sunday in hopes of finding a Black-billed Magpie that had been spotted during the past few weeks in the London area. Half a dozen birders watched carefully from the roadside before one person found it and waved us to his location. Once we walked (or ran) down the road, the bird flew back to where we had originally been standing. Black-billed Magpies are larger than Blue Jays with a much longer tail and heavier bills.

Black-billed Magpies have a wide-ranging diet. I'm not sure what it was chewing on in this picture, but it did swallow the item. They eat wild fruit and grain as well as grasshoppers and beetles that they find while foraging on the ground. They also kill small mammals such as squirrels and voles and are known to raid birds' nests. Carrion is also a main source of food.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-billed_Magpie/lifehistory#food

Black-billed Magpies are typically found in the western half of Canada, and south to the mid-western States. A few Magpies have been hanging around Southern Ontario for the past couple of months. We have seen them in Rainy River, but this was our first find in Southern Ontario.

In flight, their wings seem to be too short to support their graceful flight. When this photo was taken, the Magpie was chasing away a Red-tailed Hawk. After the hawk departed, the Magpie began to forage for food.