Pica nuttalli
In 3 days <5%
The yellow-billed magpie (Pica nuttallii), also known as the California magpie, is a bird that is endemic to California's Central Valley and the adjacent chaparral foothills and mountains. Apart from its having a yellow bill and a yellow streak around the eye and being slightly smaller, it is virtually identical to the black-billed magpie (Pica hudsonia) found in much of the rest of western North America. The scientific name commemorates the English naturalist Thomas Nuttall.
Audubon first named the species in 1837 using the spelling "nutallii". This mis-spelling of Nuttall's name was soon corrected by subsequent authors, but most recent literature has used the spelling "nuttalli", itself also an error as the original Latin ending -ii must be retained; the correct spelling thus nuttallii.
mtDNA sequence analysis indicates a close relationship between the yellow-billed magpie and the black-billed magpie, rather than between the outwardly more similar black-billed and Eurasian magpies (P. pica); it is possibly even genetically embedded within black-billed magpie, but this is not certain.
Combining fossil evidence and paleobiogeographical considerations with the molecular... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sacramento | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-billed Magpie sighting in San Francisco on a given day, based on 10 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 357th most-seen of the 375 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-billed Magpie in San Francisco on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
2nd of 2
Of the 2 cities where we can rate Yellow-billed Magpie sightings, San Francisco ranks 2nd at under 5%. The best odds are in Sacramento (United States, about 30%).
Same family: Corvidae
The closest relatives of the Yellow-billed Magpie that you can see in San Francisco (family Corvidae, Crows, Jays, and Magpies) are American Crow (about 80%), Common Raven (about 40%) and California Scrub-Jay (about 40%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Yellow-billed Magpie is recorded against all the birds logged in San Francisco (10 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
