{"id":72014,"date":"2020-07-18T05:57:29","date_gmt":"2020-07-18T11:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=72014"},"modified":"2025-05-23T11:21:56","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T16:21:56","slug":"black-billed-magpie-fledgling-perched-in-a-serviceberry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/07\/18\/black-billed-magpie-fledgling-perched-in-a-serviceberry\/","title":{"rendered":"Black-billed Magpie Fledgling Perched In A Serviceberry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some bird species fledge later in the higher altitudes of the mountains of Utah than they do in the Salt Lake Valley, Black-billed Magpies are among those birds. Typically I see Black-billed Magpie fledglings around the first few weeks of April in the Salt Lake Valley but I don’t normally see them on their own in the Wasatch Mountains until about the middle of July. The magpies start nesting later at higher elevations.<\/p>\n

\"FledglingFledgling Black-billed Magpie perched in a Utah Serviceberry \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/400, ISO 400, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Four days ago I came across about a dozen fledgling Black-billed Magpies in almost the same exact spot where I found a large flock of young magpies last year<\/span><\/a>. Last year the magpies were a touch less skittish than they were four days ago. I was only able to fire off a few shots of the immature magpies. Unfortunately I wasn’t positioned to get the best light angle to have the iridescent blue, green and purple colors of the tail and wings show in my photos.<\/p>\n

I liked this image of one of the fledgling Black-billed Magpies I photographed because of the serviceberry perch, the great eye contact I had with the young bird and its pose.<\/p>\n

\"FledglingFledgling Black-billed Magpie portrait \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Last year I mentioned in my post that young Black-billed Magpies have violet-blue to blue-gray irises and that shows well in the photo I took four days ago and in this portrait that I took of one of the immature magpies in the flock of fledglings that I found and photographed last year.<\/p>\n

Hopefully the young Black-billed Magpies will hang around and I’ll have a few more opportunities this summer to photograph them as they learn to hunt, forage and learn to survive in their mountain home.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good. Stay safe.<\/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":"

I liked this image of one of the fledgling Black-billed Magpies I photographed because of the serviceberry perch, the great eye contact I had with the young bird and its pose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":146367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,245,1731,26,773],"tags":[6523,1813,3940,4142,8187,3194,4141,4067,6005,4842,4069,4104,4167,4046,6188,6522,4193],"class_list":["post-72014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-black-billed-magpies","category-summit-county-utah","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","tag-amelanchier-utahensis","tag-black-billed-magpie","tag-canyon","tag-close-up","tag-corvid","tag-corvids","tag-fledgling","tag-immature","tag-magpie","tag-magpies","tag-mountains","tag-perched","tag-pica-hudsonia","tag-portrait","tag-shrub","tag-utah-serviceberry","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-billed-magpie-fledgling-serviceberry-mia-mcpherson-4688.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-iJw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":104194,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/07\/13\/young-black-billed-magpie-in-a-serviceberry\/","url_meta":{"origin":72014,"position":0},"title":"Young Black-billed Magpie In A Serviceberry","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 13, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Last Friday I found this Black-billed Magpie perched in a serviceberry shrub high in the mountains and stopped to take photos of the young bird.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Calling young Black-billed Magpie in a serviceberry shrub, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/black-billed-magpie-immature-serviceberry-mia-mcpherson-4339.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/black-billed-magpie-immature-serviceberry-mia-mcpherson-4339.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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"Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Black-billed Magpie with an eye on the sky, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-billed-magpie-immature-close-up-mia-mcpherson-8034.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-billed-magpie-immature-close-up-mia-mcpherson-8034.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-billed-magpie-immature-close-up-mia-mcpherson-8034.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-billed-magpie-immature-close-up-mia-mcpherson-8034.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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McPherson","date":"March 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This Black-billed Magpie had been perched on the top of a leafless greasewood when it lifted off from it and flew almost directly towards me with its body and wings turned sideways in flight.","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 on the wing, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-billed-magpie-flight-mia-mcpherson-4359.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-flight-mia-mcpherson-4359.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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