{"id":2020,"date":"2014-07-27T17:57:46","date_gmt":"2014-07-27T09:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fryap.wordpress.com\/?p=2020"},"modified":"2014-07-27T17:57:46","modified_gmt":"2014-07-27T09:57:46","slug":"yellow-billed-blue-magpie-in-bhutan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fryap.com\/blog\/2014\/07\/27\/yellow-billed-blue-magpie-in-bhutan\/","title":{"rendered":"Yellow-billed Blue Magpie in Bhutan"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have written before about the Red-billed Blue Magpies at my workplace here<\/a>. Their close relatives are the Yellow-billed Blue Magpies (Urocissa flavirostris<\/em>). The most prominent difference is the colour of their bills. They are also a bit smaller, the blue plumage a little duller, and a smaller white nape patch. They both belong to the crow and jays family, whose members are generally considered the most intelligent birds, and among the most intelligent animals.<\/p>\n

The Yellow-billed Blue Magpie, also called the Gold-billed Magpie is a species commonly found throughout the Himalayas, and in some places, co-exist with the Red-billed Blue Magpies. However in Bhutan, only the Yellow-billed Blue Magpie can be found. <\/p>\n

On the first day of my trip, I managed to hear and then see 2-3 of them flying up the trees at the hotel where I was staying. Throughout the entire trip, I would see them quite often mostly in a group, but opportunities to photograph them well was rarer. These birds are really intelligent. Once we sighted them on a low branch somewhere and stop our car, they will very soon just fly a little downhill, out of sight. Remember than Bhutan is really mountainous and the roads all go through them, so there is always a slope downhill everywhere we go. So just like the Blue Whistling Thrush (where one is present in every few turns of a road), these common birds were not so easy to photograph after all.<\/p>\n

But of course there were one or two encounters that were more productive so below are some photos of them.<\/p>\n

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Photo Gallery<\/strong><\/p>\n

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