Hi...I live on a small property that has been the home of generations of Maggies and their offspring.The Maggies are part of our family and we watch their life cycles with great interest. But for the last two years, something very interesting but strange has been happening. When the current brood leaves the nest and begins exploring the world, the female detaches herself from her family and begins to attend another nest in one of the other trees on the property. I could be wrong but last year I came to the conclusion she was feeding a young Butcher Bird chick rather than attending the pleadings of her own kids. In the twelve odd years I have been observing the Magpie family, I had never seen this happen and this year she is doing the same thing again. Has anybody ever observed such a thing and if you have, do you know of an expanation for such behaviour. I know the Butcher Bird is a cousin but usually the Magpie is very aggressive in defending its territory when a Butcher Bird intrudes.
Regards Phil
No, I have not seen this before.
But I have witnessed something, I had never seen. I have never had that many Magpies on my property before. There are 4 pairs, and all of them had young. 2 pairs have moved further away, but there are still 2 pairs with 4 babies each.
A week ago I noticed one of the parents sitting on top of one of his young and continuously pecking it on the head. I tried to disturb them, but to no avail. Shortly after, the young was dead. Killed by his parent.
Next day, I thought, what is it doing now? One adult was throwing a young in the air, similar to a cat playing with its pray. When I walked up, I realised , it was dead too.
Someone who knows more about Magpies than I do, told me that the males might kill their young if there are too many male offspring in the brood.
Ever heard that before? Or even witnessed?
M-L
Curiouser and curiouser.
The magpies have gone insane!
soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia
Interesting behaviour. I have a Magpie in my area who used to follow a young Grey Butcherbird around on the deck or porch. The butcherbird didn't seem to mind to much except if the magpie got too close and then the butcherbird would move a bit. Other than that the birds did not have much contact with each other.
Even then, Magpies can do strange things with their families and young. Remember that most magpies have their own personalities so some maggies might be a bit weird or abnormal. Part of (the Magpie) life, I guess.
M.M.
I do have a magpie that knocks on the window to be fed (even though I rarely feed him). I think he learnt that behaviour from the cockatoo... who learnt it from the king parrot ... who learnt it from the rosella.
soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia
You don't knock on the window to be fed do you? Perhaps the Rosella learned it from you.
Regards
Soakes, the window knocking behaviour by the Magpie at your house is very strongly learned, I suggest, because of your intermittent reinforcement of that behaviour with food. Intermittent reinforcement is what the gambling barons rely on to get people hooked on gambling. It's behaviour which is really hard to unlearn or extinguish.
Last year 'our' magpies nested in a tall gum tree across the road and were forever swooping everyone on our side of the street. This year they built a nest in our yard and we have not been swooped once.
I am considering writing them an invitation to permanently nest in our yard!
Happy Birding!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/138588528@N02/
Our family has produced six young'ns this year....four in the first brood and two more in a second brood. This is the first time that this has happened. Every evening we have eight magies waiting expectantly to be fed their mince meat tea. After tea they adjourn to the garden to romp and play with each other as the sun goes down in the west....much better than anything that's on the idiot box!!!
Phil, you may need to rethink feeding the Magpies mince as this could lead to a build up of small creatures in the soil with unforseen consequences. Just a thought.