The Red Billed Blue Magpie and The Yellow-Billed Blue Magpie: Inspiration for Engineering

Symrna Darkmorph
Jun 5
3 min read

The Red-Billed Blue Magpie (Urocissa erythroryncha) and its close relative, the Yellow-billed Blue Magpie (Urocissa flavirostris) are members of the crow family (Corvidae) and are renowned for their brilliant blue plumage, elongated tails, and distinctive bill coloration.

Where to find the Red-billed Blue Magpie/Yellow-billed Blue Magpie?

I first saw the Yellow-billed Blue Magpie, in Chanfi, Uttarakhand near the Jhula pull, it came with 4 more individuals and where it was hopping about at the river banks. I have also seen the Red-billed Blue Magpie in pine tree forests around Almora and Pithorgarh and they are common Himalayan Birds.

What does Red-billed Blue Magpie/Yellow-billed Blue Magpie eat?

Both magpie species are opportunistic omnivores, showcasing a diverse diet that allows them to thrive in various habitats.They forage both in trees and on the ground, exhibiting a hopping gait with their long tails held high to prevent contact with the ground. Their diet includes a wide array of food items:

Invertebrates: Insects like beetles, caterpillars, grasshoppers, ants, bees, and spiders form a significant part of their diet.
Small Animals: They will also prey on small mammals and reptiles.
Plant Matter: Fruits (such as wild berries, grapes, and figs), seeds, acorns, and grains are also consumed, especially in the late summer and early winter.

I have observed Red-Billed Blue Magpie often eating bayberry in Uttrarakhand. This fruit, locally called "kafal" is edible and children in villages often pick it sell it to passing by tourists. I made this observation in the month of May. It is sweet and sour in taste.

Red-billed Blue Magpie eating Kafal (Bayberry) in Pitthorgarh, Uttarakhand, India.

An interesting pattern to note with how this bird sits on the ground is that it holds its beautiful long tail up as if to avoid it touching the ground.

Yellow-billed Blue Magpie perched on pine tree in Rudraprayag, Uttarakhand, India.

How are the Red-billed Blue Magpies inspiring Engineers in solving real-world problems?

Birdwatching helps Engineers solve complex problems. One such example is the The Red-billed Blue Magpie Optimizer (RBMO), a new problem-solving method inspired by how red-billed blue magpies hunt and store food.

The RBMO is a "metaheuristic algorithm" meaning its a Meta (High-level), "Heuristic" (Problem-solving approach). In other words the behaviour of this bird has inspired engineers to create a problem solving approach that involves practical methods or "rules of thumb" to find a good solution, rather than guaranteeing the absolute best one. It focuses on finding a "good enough" solution within a reasonable time.

How can this approach be inspired by a bird?

In simpler terms, RBMO mimics the intelligent and cooperative behaviors of these birds, such as:

Searching: How they look for prey.
Chasing: How they pursue their target.
Attacking: How they catch their food.
Food Storage: How they save food for later.

They hunt in various ways, like jumping and searching on branches, and often work together in groups to catch larger prey or overcome defenses. What's more, they're smart about storing food in hidden spots like tree holes to keep it safe for later.

The RBMO algorithm takes these flexible hunting, cooperative, and food-storing strategies of the red-billed blue magpies and translates them into a mathematical model to efficiently tackle complex problems, such as optimizing paths or designs.

By simulating these natural behaviours, RBMO aims to efficiently solve complex problems, such as planning paths for drones (UAVs) in 2D or 3D spaces, and various engineering design challenges. See Source

and finally, creativity is to the heart what intelligence is to the brain and so here's a poem on the Red/Yellow Billed Blue Magpies