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Yellow-billed Magpies and West Nile Virus
Citizen science helps this California bird!
© Tom Grey
Like their cousins, jays and crows, the Yellow-billed Magpies of California were hit hard by West Nile virus. The disease reduced magpie numbers by half. Habitat loss and poisoning also threaten the birds. They're now on Audubon's watchlist of species of concern. Whether the magpies will develop immunity to West Nile, as some other birds have, is still not clear. In 2009, volunteers from Audubon California started conducting surveys of the bird's population. Citizen science can help keep a close eye on the Yellow-billed Magpie, whose future remains in question.
BirdNote®
Yellow-billed Magpies and West Nile Virus
Written by Bob Sundstrom
This is BirdNote.
[Selection from “California” by Joni Mitchell]
Hollywood, Alcatraz, the giant redwoods – just a few things that set California apart. Here’s another: California is home to a bird that has never been seen beyond the state’s borders – the Yellow-billed Magpie.
[Yellow-billed Magpie calls]
To see one, you’ll need to head for central California’s oak country. Yellow-billed Magpies, relatives of jays and crows, are unmistakable. They’re slim, black and white with iridescent blue wings and tail and, of course, a yellow bill.
[Yellow-billed Magpie calls]
Like jays and crows, Yellow-billed Magpies were hit hard by West Nile virus, which arrived in the West in 2004. The disease reduced magpie numbers by half. Habitat loss and poisoning also threaten the birds. They’re now on Audubon’s watchlist of species of concern.
Whether Yellow-billed Magpies will develop immunity to West Nile, as some other birds have, is still not clear. In 2009, volunteers from Audubon California started conducting surveys of the bird’s population. [Yellow-billed Magpie calls] So far, those numbers seem to be holding steady. Citizen science can help keep a close eye on the Yellow-billed Magpie, whose future remains in question.
Special thanks to The Lufkin Family Foundation for underwriting today’s show. For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.
[“California…”]
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Sounds of provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Recorded by
“California” by Joni Mitchell, album Blue, Warner Brothers 1971
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2012 Tune In to Nature.org February 2012 Narrator: Michael Stein
ID# SotB-YBMA-01-2012-02-07
[link to Audubon California magpie survey report http://ca.audubon.org/docs/Report_Magpie_survey_082311.pdf
