PAUL and other bird nerds - a drive-by shooting

Here are two shots I got while literally just driving by, looking for a parking space. I could only raise my camera and get off a couple shots before people started piling up behind me ... and with only a couple of spots left in the whole lot, they were impatient.


Paul, can you guess where I was when I shot these? (please, no help from others :D)

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Originally Posted by kellybean

Paul, can you guess where I was when I shot these? (please, no help from others :D)

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TOO EASY :) These are YELLOW-BILLED MAGPIE which are endemic to california(northern mostly) :)

Now had the bill been black I would have said ALASKA to California area is the range ;)

Ya know, I seen a few in lake tahoe many years ago, but wasn't a bird nerd back in those days! Thanks for posting these!

Thanks! But you didn't get the location right. I was not in California (or the surrounding area).

Anyone else??

My guess would be Colorado. At least that's were I shot this one. Rocky Mountain National Park to be more specific.

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Originally Posted by mjs1973

My guess would be Colorado. At least that's were I shot this one. Rocky Mountain National Park to be more specific.

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Yep! You're right! These are Vail, CO birds. :)

Ya know.... When I replied I thought that you had just one image in which there was a pair of Yellow billed magpies, but Michael and yourself have images of lone BLACK BILLED MAGPIES too it appears. Having never been to colorado and only knowing the range of the yellow-billed from books( pockets through the rockies with vast majority in cali), I still think I did pretty good ;)

You did good, Paul. :)

If it wasn't for the steering wheel on teh left hand side, I'd say in the UK because they look just like our Magpies :)