Forestation and colour: Last year’s posting illustrated both local habitat and dorsal colouring: magpie preferences.
Magpies prefer open country with a sprinkling of trees. This makes them distinctly uncommon in the heavily forested lands around the Lake. While on a walk, it was unexpected for me to encounter a group of perhaps a dozen Black-billed Magpies.
Recording pictures of perched magpies was easy; capturing a picture of one flying far from a perch proved to be more difficult. This is the best I managed.
The ventral surface of a flying magpie is a study in black and white.
If that’s “the best you can manage” I would probably like your worst one also. Magnificent capture in my opinion! Upper wing shows 17 long feathers and the lower wing shows 15. Yes, I counted the little string like feather on both sides. Thanks for another great photo!
Mary, it was the best I managed, but my fantasies hope that it isn’t the best I can manage. As to my worst shot of the day: chuckle, that would be an unidentifiable out-of-focus blur — hardly the stuff of legend. Yours is a nice point about the uneven number of wing feathers; the bird is clearly moulting.