{"id":34602,"date":"2015-12-30T05:40:08","date_gmt":"2015-12-30T12:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=34602"},"modified":"2025-08-07T10:13:55","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T15:13:55","slug":"an-adult-black-billed-magpie-portrait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/12\/30\/an-adult-black-billed-magpie-portrait\/","title":{"rendered":"An adult Black-billed Magpie Portrait"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Black-billedBlack-billed Magpie portrait – Nikon D810, f13, 1\/400, ISO 320, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

It isn’t often that I am able to take a Black-billed Magpie portrait so when a magpie flies in close enough to me I will jump at the opportunity.<\/p>\n

A bit of background on this image… I was photographing other birds on Antelope Island State Park<\/span><\/a> when this Black-billed Magpie flew in and landed on a sagebrush very close to the stopped vehicle I was sitting in and using as a mobile blind.<\/p>\n

I knew the magpie wouldn’t stay long so I very quickly adjusted my settings and hoped that I would have enough depth of field to get the whole head and wing of the magpie relatively sharp.<\/p>\n

I probably should have used f18 instead of f13 because I can see a drop off of sharpness in the wing but I don’t mind that too much.<\/p>\n

I liked that the magpie opened its bill, called and showed a tiny strand of spit near the base of the bill. Out of all the magpie images I have taken I believe this is the only one I have taken that has saliva in it.<\/p>\n

I did some research and found out that some birds do have salivary glands which I guess I never paid attention to until I took this portrait.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good. Birds are fascinating.<\/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":"

It isn’t often that I am able to take a Black-billed Magpie portrait so when a magpie flies in close enough to me I will jump at the opportunity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":151879,"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":[511,27,245,1022,26],"tags":[4004,5552,1813,4072,4142,3194,6005,4842,6733,4167,4046,4849,4850,4018],"class_list":["post-34602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-avian","category-black-billed-magpies","category-davis-county-utah","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-bill","tag-black-billed-magpie","tag-calling","tag-close-up","tag-corvids","tag-magpie","tag-magpies","tag-open","tag-pica-hudsonia","tag-portrait","tag-saliva","tag-salivary-glands","tag-sky"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-portrait-mia-mcpherson-2499.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-906","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":35140,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/01\/28\/portraits-of-an-adult-black-billed-magpie\/","url_meta":{"origin":34602,"position":0},"title":"Portraits Of An Adult Black-billed Magpie","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I only have a few portraits of an adult Black-billed Magpie and yesterday I was able to add several of them to my portfolio.","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":"Portrait of an adult Black-billed Magpie photographed on Antelope Island State Park in Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-portrait-adult-mia-mcpherson-9053.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-portrait-adult-mia-mcpherson-9053.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Black-billed Magpie portrait at sunrise, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/black-billed-magpie-immature-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3293.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/black-billed-magpie-immature-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3293.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/black-billed-magpie-immature-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3293.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/black-billed-magpie-immature-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3293.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":35174,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/01\/31\/portraits-of-a-black-billed-magpie-in-a-snowstorm\/","url_meta":{"origin":34602,"position":2},"title":"Portraits of a Black-billed Magpie in a Snowstorm","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 31, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The first bird I raised my lens for yesterday was this Black-billed Magpie in a snowstorm near the visitor center.","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 close up in a snowstorm on Antelope Island State Park in Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/black-billed-magpie-snow-storm-mia-mcpherson-9893.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/black-billed-magpie-snow-storm-mia-mcpherson-9893.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/black-billed-magpie-snow-storm-mia-mcpherson-9893.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/black-billed-magpie-snow-storm-mia-mcpherson-9893.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":56819,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/03\/25\/resting-black-billed-magpie-close-up-on-antelope-island\/","url_meta":{"origin":34602,"position":3},"title":"Resting Black-billed Magpie Close Up On Antelope Island","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"So far this year the only photo I've taken of the nest building magpies that I have liked is this close up of a resting Black-billed Magpie who was taking a break from looking for nesting materials.","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":"Resting Black-billed Magpie close up, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-close-up-spring-mia-mcpherson-8718.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-close-up-spring-mia-mcpherson-8718.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Black-billed Magpie portrait in a winter whiteout, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/black-billed-mapgie-portrait-white-out-mia-mcpherson-9821.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/black-billed-mapgie-portrait-white-out-mia-mcpherson-9821.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/black-billed-mapgie-portrait-white-out-mia-mcpherson-9821.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/black-billed-mapgie-portrait-white-out-mia-mcpherson-9821.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2514,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/06\/13\/black-billed-magpie-juveniles\/","url_meta":{"origin":34602,"position":5},"title":"Black-billed Magpie Juveniles","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Adults have black eyes, the Black-billed Magpie juveniles have blue, gray or even violet eyes.","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":"Portrait of a Black-billed Magpie juvenile. 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