Yellow billed blue magpie – Anti light, Bhutan

The yellow-billed blue magpie or gold-billed magpie (Urocissa flavirostris) is a passerine bird in the crow and jay family, Corvidae. It forms a superspecies with the Taiwan blue magpie and the red-billed blue magpie. The species ranges across the northern parts of the Indian Subcontinent including the lower Himalayas, with a disjunct population in Vietnam. The first thing one would notice when looking at a Yellow-billed Blue Magpie is the bill that contrasts with the black head. The yellow-billed magpie or gold-billed magpie is a purplish blue bird with black coloured head, neck and breast regions. There is a white patch on the nape and whitish coloured underparts. It has a long tail which is graduated black and white . The billis yellow coloured and legs orange. The blue magpies are, as may be judged from their handsome tails, essentially arboreal birds; though, while they are most usually to be met with in heavy jungle areas, they also venture out into the trees amongst cultivation, and at times on to bare mountain sides at high elevations. They frequently feed on the ground and then adopt a curious hopping gait, with the tail held high to prevent it coming into contact with the ground. They live in parties of seven or eight birds and are very partial to particular localities, so that once a party has taken up its abode in any particular nullah or patch of forest it will generally be found there. This bird is very noisy; the ordinary call is harsh and grating, but it has a wide variety of notes, some of which are melodious enough.

The yellow-billed blue magpie or gold-billed magpie (Urocissa flavirostris) generally feeds on small mammals, eggs and young of other birds, insects, and wild fruits and berries of various kinds. It is Omnivorous, but mainly carnivorous. Takes all manner of invertebrates, small vertebrates and various fruits and berries. It is classified as least concern by IUCN however and not globally threatened.