With a Blue-throated Barbet calling in the background, a Red-billed Blue Magpie feeds her brood of four chicks on the nest, then sits on them to protect them from the harsh summer sun, in the Himalayan foothills where she lives!

The Red-billed Blue Magpie ( Urocissa erythrorhyncha) is a species of bird in the crow family Corvidae . It is about the same size as the European Magpie but has a much longer tail. The head, neck and breast are black with a bluish spotting on the crown. The shoulders and rump are a duller blue and the underparts are a greyish cream. The long tail is a brighter blue (as are the wing primaries) with a broad white tip. The bill is a bright orange-red as are the legs and feet and a ring around the eye. This red can vary across its range to almost yellow in some birds. It occurs in a broad swathe from the western Himalayas, eastwards into China and Vietnam in evergreen forest and scrub in predominantly hilly or mountainous country.

Food is sought both in trees and on the ground. It takes the usual wide range of food, such as invertebrates, other small animals, and fruit and some seeds. It robs nests of eggs and also chicks.

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