Male of Female?

While watching four magpies batter about my songbird birdfeeder and then wobble circles on the ground below to glean the seeds they knocked free, I realized I did not know how to tell a male from a female.

Our particular bird is the black-billed magpie.  I like the name.  Rather pirate-sounding, which somewhat fits their swaggering, swashbuckling behavior.

I went online for information on our magpies.  Surprisingly, I encountered difficulty finding information on how identify the sexes.  I swooped through information from Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Audubon, and a host of other online sources, including Wikipedia.

I found lots of information on behavior and diet.

By the way, our magpies eat more bugs than other members of the crow family.

Finally, I found something on identification of sex.  Males are 6 to 9 percent larger and 16 to 20 percent heavier than females.

Not exactly helpful.

Here is another interesting tidbit: Black-billed magpies tend to mate for life.  But, according to Wikipedia, “divorces are possible: one South Dakota study found low rates of divorce (8%) but one 7-year study in Alberta found divorce rates up to 63%.”

Almost human, then.

After my study, I am still a little baffled as to how I will identify the sex of magpies.  Obviously, the birds are not going to submit to queries about sex if I run at them with a tape measure or scale.

Here is another interesting bit.  According to Wikipedia, black-billed magpies "indulge in anting (applying ants onto their plumage) and sun-bathing (back facing the sun, head down, wings drooped and spread wide, tail fanned, back feathers fluffed up). They also belong to that group of birds that scratch their head with their foot over the wing.”

From my own observation, I have learned they can be buttholes.

—Mitchell Hegman

PHOTO: Stephen S Skrzydlo