{"id":63432,"date":"2020-01-27T05:40:46","date_gmt":"2020-01-27T12:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=63432"},"modified":"2025-02-19T06:05:11","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T12:05:11","slug":"black-billed-magpie-portrait-in-whiteout-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/01\/27\/black-billed-magpie-portrait-in-whiteout-conditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Black-billed Magpie Portrait In Whiteout Conditions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Black-billedBlack-billed Magpie portrait in a winter whiteout \u2013 Nikon D810, f14, 1\/125, ISO 640, +1.0 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The weather conditions on Antelope Island State were horrible but my friend and fellow photographer, David Sparks, was visiting Utah so despite the snowy, blowy, foggy, wet and nasty conditions we went out in search of birds.<\/p>\n

Our first destination was Antelope Island State Park<\/span><\/a> where it was difficult to find birds because of the poor weather conditions but we did manage to find a few.<\/p>\n

I photographed this Black-billed Magpie as it perched on a trash container and sign post. The magpie must have been cold because it didn’t fly off right away which allowed me to take a series of portraits of it in the whiteout conditions. In fact, the magpie images were the only photos I kept from that day.<\/p>\n

The Black-billed Magpies here in northern Utah will soon start to build new nests which take about 40 to 50 days to construct or reinforce nests they have used in previous years.<\/p>\n

I usually begin to notice their nest building behaviors around the end of the first week of February and that is just a few days away now. It has been a warmer than normal winter here in the Salt Lake Valley so these loud but enchanting corvids may even start to build their nests earlier than usual.<\/p>\n

I know I will be looking for them when I can get back out into the field, that is if<\/em> the weather ever cooperates.<\/p>\n

High key images don’t tickle everyone’s fancy but I enjoy taking them when I can and I like this one.<\/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

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":140344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_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":[4004,1813,4142,3194,1123,6005,4842,4167,4046,4050,8477,6300,5626,373],"class_list":["post-63432","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-corvids","tag-high-key-2","tag-magpie","tag-magpies","tag-pica-hudsonia","tag-portrait","tag-snow","tag-snowy-weather","tag-white-out","tag-whiteout-conditions","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/black-billed-mapgie-portrait-white-out-mia-mcpherson-9821.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-gv6","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":63432,"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 "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, 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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":35140,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/01\/28\/portraits-of-an-adult-black-billed-magpie\/","url_meta":{"origin":63432,"position":2},"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, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-portrait-adult-mia-mcpherson-9053.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-portrait-adult-mia-mcpherson-9053.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":63432,"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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