[2] The red-billed blue magpie was described by French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1775 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux.

[3] The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text.

[4] Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name, but in 1783, Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Corvus erythrorynchus in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées.

It ranges from the western Himalayas eastwards into Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, and through central and eastern China to southwest Manchuria, in evergreen forest and scrub in predominantly hilly or mountainous country.

Vocal mimicry is very apparent in this species, and its calls are very varied, but the most usual are a grating rattle and a high-pitched whistle somewhat like a flute.