The Black-billed Magpie (Pica hudsonia) is a bird in the crow family

Corvidae

Corvidae is a cosmopolitan family of oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies, choughs and nutcrackers. The common English names used are corvids or the crow family , and there are over 120 species...

 that inhabits the western half of North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

. It is notable for its domed nests, and for being one of only four North American songbirds whose tail makes up half or more of the total body length (the others being the Yellow-billed Magpie

Yellow-billed Magpie

The Yellow-billed Magpie, Pica nuttalli, is a large bird in the crow family found only in California. It inhabits the Central Valley and the adjacent chaparral foothills and mountains...

, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is a long-tailed insectivorous bird of the genus, whose members are collectively referred to as kingbirds. The kingbirds are a group of large insectivorous birds in the tyrant flycatcher family...

, and the Fork-tailed Flycatcher

Fork-tailed Flycatcher

The Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Tyrannus savana, is a passerine bird of the tyrant flycatcher family, and is the member of a genus typically referred to as kingbirds.-Description and ecology:...

).
Externally, The Black-billed Magpie is almost identical with the European Magpie

European Magpie

The European Magpie, Eurasian Magpie, or Common Magpie, , is a resident breeding bird throughout Europe, much of Asia and northwest Africa. It is one of several birds in the crow family named as magpies, and belongs to the Holarctic radiation of "monochrome" magpies...

, Pica pica, and is considered conspecific by many sources.