Black-billed Magpie by Andre Trenier

Painted: 10/18/2015

(This mural has suffered extensive damage.)

Sponsored by: The Willson gals

About the Bird: Flashy and raucous, Black-billed Magpies are conspicuous in the West, from towns and ranches to wilderness meadows. Although they seem adaptable, they avoid the hot, dry deserts of the Southwest. If temperatures continue to rise at their current pace, Audubon’s models suggest more than half of the magpies’ current range could become unsuitable for them. 

About the Artist: Bronx muralist Andre Trenier is currently an artist in residence at the Andrew Freedman Home in the Bronx and participates in community-service programming for local residents. He painted a different view of a Black-billed Magpie on either side of a chinese restaurant in Manhattan's Hamilton Heights neighborhood. The magpie’s distinctive colors, high intelligence, and obsession with shiny objects appealed to him. “They have often been used to symbolize people’s fascination with false perception and materialism,” he says.

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