{"id":35140,"date":"2016-01-28T05:55:06","date_gmt":"2016-01-28T12:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=35140"},"modified":"2025-08-07T08:56:38","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T13:56:38","slug":"portraits-of-an-adult-black-billed-magpie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/01\/28\/portraits-of-an-adult-black-billed-magpie\/","title":{"rendered":"Portraits Of An Adult Black-billed Magpie"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-151849 size-full\" title=\"Adult Black-billed Magpie close up on Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-adult-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8970.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-adult-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8970.jpg\" alt=\"Adult Black-billed Magpie close up on Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah\" width=\"640\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27640%27%20height%3D%27800%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20640%20800%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27640%27%20height%3D%27800%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-adult-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8970-200x250.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-adult-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8970-400x500.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-adult-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8970-600x750.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-adult-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8970.jpg 640w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Adult Black-billed Magpie close up &#8211; Nikon D810, f16, 1\/160, ISO 800, +1.0 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It isn&#8217;t often that I am able to be so close to a Black-billed Magpie as I was yesterday morning on <a href=\"http:\/\/stateparks.utah.gov\/parks\/antelope-island\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Antelope Island State Park<\/span><\/a> but when I am that close I will take advantage of the situation. 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.<\/p>\n<p>Some people find Black-billed Magpies to be nothing more than pests and annoyances. Not me, I think all members of the corvid family are fascinating, intelligent, and fun to observe and photograph.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-151850 size-full\" title=\"Portrait of an adult Black-billed Magpie photographed on Antelope Island State Park in Davis County, Utah\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-portrait-adult-mia-mcpherson-9053.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-portrait-adult-mia-mcpherson-9053.jpg\" alt=\"Portrait of an adult Black-billed Magpie photographed on Antelope Island State Park in Davis County, Utah\" width=\"850\" height=\"607\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20850%20607%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-portrait-adult-mia-mcpherson-9053-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-portrait-adult-mia-mcpherson-9053-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-portrait-adult-mia-mcpherson-9053-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-portrait-adult-mia-mcpherson-9053-600x428.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-portrait-adult-mia-mcpherson-9053-768x548.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-portrait-adult-mia-mcpherson-9053.jpg 850w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Portrait of an adult Black-billed Magpie &#8211; Nikon D810, f16, 1\/80, ISO 320, +1.0 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This magpie was so close I felt I needed as much depth of field as possible and since the magpie was being cooperative I experimented with my ISO and aperture to get the sharpest images I could with as much detail as possible.<\/p>\n<p>I will say that I don&#8217;t like passing up opportunities to take portraits of any bird or animal when I have the chance because portraits give us a chance to view the eyes closer and see more facial details than we can with full body images.<\/p>\n<p>Life <em>is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/black-billed-magpie-images\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">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":"<p>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. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":151850,"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":[4004,1813,4142,6005,4842,4167,4046,4746,4018],"class_list":["post-35140","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-black-billed-magpie","tag-close-up","tag-magpie","tag-magpies","tag-pica-hudsonia","tag-portrait","tag-portraits","tag-sky"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-portrait-adult-mia-mcpherson-9053.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-98M","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":35174,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/01\/31\/portraits-of-a-black-billed-magpie-in-a-snowstorm\/","url_meta":{"origin":35140,"position":0},"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 &quot;Antelope Island State Park&quot;","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":121645,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/02\/20\/black-billed-magpie-with-nesting-materials\/","url_meta":{"origin":35140,"position":1},"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 &quot;Antelope Island State Park&quot;","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, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/black-billed-magpie-nesting-material-mia-mcpherson-7510.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/black-billed-magpie-nesting-material-mia-mcpherson-7510.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/black-billed-magpie-nesting-material-mia-mcpherson-7510.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/black-billed-magpie-nesting-material-mia-mcpherson-7510.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":97171,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/11\/09\/immature-black-billed-magpie-portrait-at-sunrise\/","url_meta":{"origin":35140,"position":2},"title":"Immature Black-billed Magpie Portrait At Sunrise","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 9, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I was looking through my archives yesterday when I came across this immature Black-billed Magpie portrait taken at sunrise on Antelope Island State Park.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Antelope Island State Park&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State 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":63432,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/01\/27\/black-billed-magpie-portrait-in-whiteout-conditions\/","url_meta":{"origin":35140,"position":3},"title":"Black-billed Magpie Portrait In Whiteout Conditions","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 27, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I seem to be on a high key bird photo kick this month so I thought I would add one more of a Black-billed Magpie I photographed in a winter whiteout just a few days shy of four years ago.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Antelope Island State Park&quot;","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 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":56819,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/03\/25\/resting-black-billed-magpie-close-up-on-antelope-island\/","url_meta":{"origin":35140,"position":4},"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 &quot;Antelope Island State Park&quot;","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, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-close-up-spring-mia-mcpherson-8718.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-close-up-spring-mia-mcpherson-8718.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":82221,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/03\/25\/black-billed-magpie-with-nesting-material\/","url_meta":{"origin":35140,"position":5},"title":"Black-billed Magpie With Nesting Material","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 25, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"It is Black-billed Magpie nesting season on Antelope Island State Park and throughout their breeding range in western North America.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Antelope Island State Park&quot;","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 with nesting material, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/black-billed-magpie-adult-nesting-mia-mcpherson-0608.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/black-billed-magpie-adult-nesting-mia-mcpherson-0608.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/black-billed-magpie-adult-nesting-mia-mcpherson-0608.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/black-billed-magpie-adult-nesting-mia-mcpherson-0608.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}