Oklahoma Vagrants: Lesser Black-backed Gull

This rare but increasing winter resident from Europe tends to come to Oklahoma on practically a yearly basis.  First noticed in 2008 at Boomer Lake Park in Stillwater, this gull comes to Oklahoma frequently in winter, as well as other parts of the state, including Lake Hefner, Lake Yahola, Keystone Dam, and other areas including the Panhandle.  It usually mixes in among the Ring-billed and Herring Gulls, usually noted for its larger size, smudged dark spot around the eye, and pale yellow juvenile legs.

They are usually found all over the Atlantic coast in winter, then gradually lessen as they get to inland areas of the US.  It looks similar to the Herring Gull, but is a little smaller and the bill shape also helps to give away its identity.

                                                          Lesser Black-backed Gull
                                                           Boomer Lake Park, 2016

It is suspected that these birds come from Greenland or Iceland, where the latter has had older colonies.  As of 2007, two different birds paired with two Herring Gulls to become nesting birds in the States, which was in Maine and Alaska.  It first arrived in the US in 1934.

The call is a deeper laugh than the Herring Gull. which also helps to draw attention to it.  Young birds have scaly dark brown feathers with black primaries, a neat pattern on the wings, and takes four years to mature.  They are also omnivores, like most other gulls, and will join other species at a local dump, or eat invertebrates and fish at bodies of water.  They are also kleptoparasites.

Oklahoma Breeding Bird Species Profile: Black-billed Magpie

A large bird of the American West in the corvid family, the Black-billed Magpie is easily identified by long black tail with black, white and blue-green iridescent plumage.  It also boasts white primaries and scapulars, readily observed in flight.  The mechanical sounds that the magpie makes are reminiscent of R2D2 of Star Wars fame.  With such a recipe, this is a bird sure to cause the curious to become even more intrigued.

This unusual bird flashes white wing patches while in flight, somewhat similar to the Northern Mockingbird. The long rudderlike tail, which makes up half its body length, appears to belong to the Great-tailed Grackle at first glance.  So what IS it?

The American magpie is common in parklands, riparian thickets, and prairies, as long as there are scattered trees at its disposal.  It also perches on fenceposts as well as along the roadside.  A seed- as well as animal eater, it forages on the ground for insects, rodents, and worms, usually in small groups of its kind.




                              Black-billed Magpie
        Pen, ink, graphite pencil, marker, colored pencil
                        Art by Liana Winters Smith

A Cimarron County resident in the 1920s and early '30s, it has recently been seen in Cimarron County along the river for which the county is named off Highway 325. Though a very rare bird now, it still remains in the Panhandle as a species.  It was last seen in numbers of a dozen in 2012.

The domed nest, though historical, sits near the tops of trees and is twig construction.

These omnivores have habits of the Cattle Egret, which also stays around moose or cattle herds and removes ticks and other pests from their backs by standing upon them. As a gregarious species, it is also somewhat tolerant of humans, often in their vicinity and around their structures, conveyances, or bird feeders to supplement their diets.

They have also followed wolves, cleaning up after their kills, as any opportunistic animal would.  Like crows, they cache food on the ground.  The food is covered up with grass or leaves, and usually consumed within a few days, moved elsewhere for security reasons, or simply abandoned.  No doubt that the aroma will eventually lead other animals to its location if unused.

The magpie ants as well as suns itself under appropriate conditions.  They also roost in the winter, like the American Crow, but don't huddle.  They will also regurgitate pellets, which can be found under the trees on the ground.

They have decreased in the plains due to habitat loss since the mid-1960s and are susceptible to topicals applied to the backs of cattle as a pest deterrent.

Magpies tend to use altitudinal migration over any other type of seasonal movement.
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