{"id":20986,"date":"2015-03-20T05:48:36","date_gmt":"2015-03-20T11:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=20986"},"modified":"2024-08-28T12:57:18","modified_gmt":"2024-08-28T17:57:18","slug":"a-partially-leucistic-black-billed-magpie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/03\/20\/a-partially-leucistic-black-billed-magpie\/","title":{"rendered":"Partially Leucistic Black-billed Magpie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PartiallyPartially Leucistic Black-billed Magpie<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week I photographed some Black-billed Magpies on Antelope Island State Park and one of them was partially leucistic which means it was showing white feathers where they should have been a different color, in this case the feathers should have been black. When the magpie landed on a budding greasewood bush two white secondaries were exposed on the underside of the bird’s right wing sandwiched in between normal colored feathers.<\/p>\n

\"Black-billedBlack-billed Magpie with wings spread<\/span><\/p>\n

This image shows the underside of a normal Black-billed Magpie. Note that where the partially leucistic has the two white feathers this bird has black feathers.<\/p>\n

From Wikipedia<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Leucism (occasionally spelled leukism) is a general term for the phenotype resulting from defects in pigment cell differentiation and\/or migration from the neural crest to skin, hair, or feathers during development. This results in either the entire surface (if all pigment cells fail to develop) or patches of body surface (if only a subset are defective) having a lack of cells capable of making pigment.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"PartiallyPartially Leucistic Black-billed Magpie in flight<\/span><\/p>\n

This image shows the partially leucistic magpie lifting off and shows that the lack of pigmentation of those two secondary feathers from a dorsal view. This magpie may have additional feathers on it’s left wing lacking pigmentation because I can see a white feather behind the bird’s dangling feet but I don’t have any clear images of the bird’s left side to be sure if it has more than one white feather on that side.<\/p>\n

\"Black-billedBlack-billed Magpie taking off<\/span><\/p>\n

This image shows a dorsal view of a normal colored Black-billed Magpie.<\/p>\n

You could say that the partially leucistic Black-billed Magpie is “pied” or has a “piebald” effect. And who knows, if this\u00a0partially leucistic Black-billed Magpie has a successful nesting season we might be seeing more partially leucistic Black-billed Magpies on the island.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Black-billed Magpie photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week I photographed some Black-billed Magpies on Antelope Island State Park and one of them was partially leucistic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,27,245,13594,26],"tags":[3458,4021,1813,6585,3981,4052,4122,4123,3456,3455,6005,4842,5515,4167,3457,7876],"class_list":["post-20986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-avian","category-black-billed-magpies","category-leucistic","category-utah","tag-piebald-effect","tag-bird-photography","tag-black-billed-magpie","tag-bush","tag-davis-county","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-landing","tag-leucism","tag-leucistic","tag-magpie","tag-magpies","tag-partially-leucistic","tag-pica-hudsonia","tag-pied","tag-pigment-issues"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/black-billed-magpie-leucistic-mia-mcpherson-0732.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-5su","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":121645,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/02\/20\/black-billed-magpie-with-nesting-materials\/","url_meta":{"origin":20986,"position":0},"title":"Black-billed Magpie With Nesting Materials","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 20, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"It was my first full spring in Utah, nearly 14 years ago, when my keen eyes were used to find my first Black-billed Magpie nest on Antelope Island State Park.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Black-billed Magpie in flight with nesting material for its nest, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, 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Nesting Black-billed Magpies At The Same Nest","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 28, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I am more than thrilled to once again observe and photograph nesting Black-billed Magpies using the same greasewood where I first photographed them almost ten years ago.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Black-billed Magpie lifting off from a bush with nesting material, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, 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Ballet","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I know I am looking forward to photographing and watching the Black-billed Magpie nest building ballet that occurs each spring.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Black-billed Magpie landing with nesting material, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-nesting-material-mia-mcpherson-2604.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-nesting-material-mia-mcpherson-2604.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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