Gene and Tweeters,

Actually, Yellow-billed Magpies are much more widespread in California
than your note indicated. They are found in the Great Valley all the
way from Shasta County (Redding area) south to Kern County
(Bakersfield area), as well as in the inner Coast Ranges from San
Francisco Bay south to Santa Barbara County. They are abundant in much
of this range.

To the best of my knowledge, the species is not increasing its range,
although the A.O.U. checklist lists it as casual in Siskiyou County.
Yellow-billed Magpies are non-migratory, and have never been recorded
outside California. To my mind, this is one of the quintessential
"California birds".

I got a bit of a surprise in 2000, when I saw several magpies in open
oak woodland along Highway 66 east of Ashland, Oregon-- typical
habitat for Yellow-billed. However, they proved to be Black-billed
Magpies, and other observers have seen Black-billed Magpies in the
same area.

Wayne C. Weber
Kamloops, BC
contopus at shaw.ca


----- Original Message -----
From: Gene Lynch <vogeler at ieway.com>
To: Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Friday, June 21, 2002 5:49 AM
Subject: re: Yellow-billed Magpies



35 years ago, when I first went to CA, Yellow-billed Magpies were
pretty much restricted to northern Santa Barbara and southern San Luis
Opispo counties. However, I found two of them on the lawn at a motel
in Willows, CA, in May. This is a couple of hours north of Sacramento,
about 8-9 driving hours north of Santa Barbara County. They are moving
northward, slowly but surely.

Gene Lynch
Spokane