After seeing 3 days of a reported rare bird for Wisconsin, the Black-billed Magpie at the Superior Landfill I thought I would take the chance and try for it. The Black-billed Magpie’s normal range is the Dakota’s, Nebraska and Kansas and west then up into Alaska. The reports on ebird were only 1 or 2 each for those 3 days so would the bird still be there? Deb joined me and we made the 5 1/2 hour ride to Superior leaving Waukesha at 3:00 AM. When we arrived at the landfill I spent almost 4 hours walking the road by the landfill watching many Bald Eagles, Common Ravens, Turkey Vultures, Ring-billed and American Herring Gulls flying back and forth from inside the landfill and north to Lake Superior I would assume, but no sign of the Magpie. The sky was really dark and a few raindrops were starting to fall. My thought was I guess this rare bird is not going to show for us. At that time Deb steps out of our vehicle and points. Jim, “the Black-billed Magpie just landed on the post in front of the vehicle”. I could hardly believe those words from her but there it was, perched so pretty about 50 feet in front of the vehicle. It was on the landfills property inside the fence so I just took a couple of photos and then off it went. It was a fun day getting Wisconsin life bird #388. A big thank you to the finder of this rare bird and getting the word out for others to try for it. The early morning had a little fog, mostly cloudy skies with temps around 70, light winds. Images were taken on September 12, 2025
The Black-billed Magpie on the ground just after jumping off the post nearby…
The Black-billed Magpie on the post in front of the vehicle when Deb spotted it from inside the vehicle when reading…
Here with a piece of garbage, must have been dropped by a gull coming from the landfill, there was a lot of that going on…
