The bill, head, breast and underparts are black, with green iridescence on the wings and tail. It has a white belly and shoulders, white primaries conspicuous as white wing patches in flight.
Magpies inhabit open woodlands, savannas, brush covered, country, streamside growth.
The female lays 6-9 blotched greenish eggs in a neat cup nest within a large, bulky, domed structure of strong, often thorny twigs, with a double entrance, in a tree or bush. Magpies are resident from Alaska and western Canada south to east-central California and east to Great Plains. Also found in Eurasia. Those living in western rangeland appear shy of humans, but their behavior in the Old World is very different. In northern Finland magpies live in the middle of settlements and place their nests low.