Food and foraging habits Black-billed magpie
scavenging remains of large animal carcass the black-billed magpie opportunistic omnivore, eating many types of insects, carrion, seeds, rodents, berries, nuts, eggs, , garbage , food pets fed outside. chicks fed animal matter exclusively. magpies typically forage on ground, walking, hopping, , scratching feet turn on ground litter. land on large mammals, such moose or cattle, pick @ ticks plague these animals. follow large predators, such wolves, scavenge or steal kills. black-billed magpies known make food caches in ground, in scatter-hoarding fashion. make cache, bird pushes or hammers bill ground (or snow), forming small hole deposits food items holding in small pouch under tongue. may, however, move food location, particularly if other magpies in vicinity, watching. cache robbing common magpie makes several false caches before real one. final cache covered grass, leaves, or twigs. after bird cocks head , stares @ cache, possibly commit site memory. such hoards short-term; food rec...