Yellow-billed Magpie
Yellow-billed Magpie named Audubon California’s
2009 Bird of the Year
The Yellow-billed Magpie’s range is limited to the Central Valley and Central Coast Ranges of California. This California endemic has suffered dramatic mortality from West Nile virus (WNV). In the past several years thousands of dead magpies have been reported to California Department of Health Services WNV Dead Bird Surveillance Program. Of the >800 tested, on average approximately 80% tested positive for WNV, the highest WNV-positive percentage of all birds tested in California.
Abundance and distribution of Yellow-billed Magpies - see the work of Scott Crosbie
Habitat needs of Yellow-billed Magpies; field-collected data and computer modeling to describe the climate and vegetation types - see work of Levi Souza
Have the magpies lost genetic diversity and become inbred? How are their populations structured? see DNA research of Holly Ernest and collaborators
Effects of West Nile virus and Pathology in Yellow-billed Magpies. Work of Holly Ernest, Leslie Woods, and Bruce Hoar.
Through collaborations with members of the Yellow-billed Magpie Working Group, the public through Magpie Monitors (www.magpiemonitor.org), CDFG, PRBO Conservation Science, The Audubon Society, and other agencies, organizations and ornithologists, we are implementing studies to estimate their population size, loss of genetic diversity due to WNV, and viability over time.
Our Yellow-billed Magpie research is featured in Yellow-billed Magpie account on Birds of North America Online
Yellow-billed Magpie publications
- The first DNA markers specifically for Yellow-billed Magpies
Ernest HB, Well JA, and J. Kurushima. 2008. Development of nine microsatellite loci for Yellow-billed Magpie (Pica nuttalli) and corvid ecology and West Nile virus studies. Molecular Ecology Resources. 8:196 - 198 - West Nile virus impact on Yellow-billed Magpie populations
Crosbie SP, Koenig WD, Reisen WK, Kramer VL, Marcus L, Carney R, Pandolfino E, Bolen GM, Crosbie LR, Bell DA, Ernest HB. 2008. Early Impact of West Nile virus on the Yellow-billed Magpie (Pica nuttalli). The Auk- Journal of the American Ornithologists' Union.125: 542–550. - Pathology of West Nile virus on Yellow-billed Magpies
Ernest HB, Woods LW, Hoar BR. In press 2010. Pathology associated with West Nile Virus infections in the Yellow-billed Magpie (Pica nuttalli): a California endemic bird. Journal of Wildlife Diseases.
Researchers
Holly Ernest, Scott Crosbie, Levi Souza, Lisa Goldberg, Ben Harmeling, Leslie Woods, Bruce Hoar, and collaborators
MAGPIE MONITOR PROGRAM AND UC DAVIS SCHOOL OF 
VETERINARY MEDICINE HELP CALIFORNIA AUDUBON AND EBIRD COUNT FOR MAGPIE CONSERVATION 2009
See California Audubon Yellow-billed Magpie July 2009 Report
and learn how you can participate in future countsi
Help us fund our exciting research!