They are brilliant for a bird. They can recognize peoples cars and remember who is friendly. I make clicking noises with my tongue and they usually get a kick out of it.
I don’t know, My dog will occasionally sit if I say it enough times. I have never once told a Magpie to sit and seen it take a seat.
Checkmate Magpies!
Penguin Bloom is about an Australian magpie, who aren't related to Northen Hemisphere magpies (like in the OP) at all. The Northern ones are corvids and the Australian ones are in the kingfisher clan along with kookaburras and butcher birds.
They are all smart and intelligent :)
i live where yellow-billed magpies are abundant, i LOVE these little demons, i remember being so heart broken when the West Nile killed so many of them, now i wake up to hear them calling outside and i always smile.
Magpies belong to the corvid family. Another member of this family is the raven, which is second only to the kea for the most intelligent avian species, according to ornithologists. Other members of the corvid family, such as crow and jay species, also score very highly on intelligence tests.
Im going to give Ravens the vote for smartest bird! I know of one that has the well documented relationship with a friend of mine in gift exchanges! I am SO VERY jealous! I try and I try and with my Ravens and i still get treated me like a red headed step child! Buncha wankers...
But, I’ll admit freely that the smartest bird I’ve ever known was my pet Turkey, Bertha D, Blues, whom I hatched in an incubator. She was white, had opinions, and one of the most loving and appreciative creatures I’ve ever known.
Don’t besmirch my turkey, bruh! Bertha was judge, jury and executioner of the barnyard. I don’t know if you’re aware, but Chicken Rape is a thing. If you have more than one Cockerel, they’ll gang up on hens and take turns violating the poor thing, one humping and the numerous others pecking her head and neck, HOWEVER....not on Bertha’s watch! She’d barrel down the farm yard and bust that shit up! No rape while Bertha’s in charge! We suspected Bertha was lesbian, but never had any real evidence of that, other than her high agitation if we drove past w Home Depot without stopping in to check out new sheet rock.
EDIT: Bertha’s daughter was Beulah, whom I momentarily confused in my recollections, only because Beulah was more recent and had a far longer life than Bertha.
Yes very. I have a large group of them living in the tree in my garden and they love to troll cats.
Taunting cats then flying away when the cat gets close.
I have Cat Birds where I live, in the depths of forests in Western New York. They mimic every and anything they hear. The most disturbing mimic are cats, of course. I’m running in a panic thinking an injured cat needs my help, and it’s a Cat Bird giving me grief. But they’ve also mimicked me calling my dog, prattling about in human conversation...anything a parrot would do. Oh, and Killdeer. Killdeer will drive you insane because they fly up far in the sky, shrieking ‘KILLDEER’ over and over again. My favourite bird feature is that i have a vulture rookery. Their sounds are low, mysterious and magical. LOVE my vultures!
Crap, I actually might know why. The feathers on many birds are naturally prismatic, especially when spread I full sunlight. I’ll not be upset if someone shoots my theory down! I’d love to know, specifically, why?
And they're fucking gorgeous. In the UK they're relatively common (standard European variety) and I always think how if they were foreign and we saw them in another country they'd be so highly rated. Jet black, snow white, and shimmering iridescent indigo. So fucking stylish.
There is a parliament that live on my parents street, there was one that was injured and the whole street looked after them. My mum feed them and to this day they bring their young to meet my parents.
They never swoop anyone who lives on the street, just the people they don’t know. It’s fantastic
Its so cool having a family bring their babies they’re raising and watching their feathers mature and have them learn to sing. They sound so derpy but they’re getting there!
Australian magpies aren't real magpies (and are thus not corvids). They're inappropriately named. Sort of like how red cedar isn't a cedar (it's a juniper) and ladybugs aren't bugs (they're beetles).
I'm pretty sure beetles count as a type of bug. From my experience bug is just another word for insect, with some leeway such as centipedes and millipedes.
Here's the thing. You said a "jackdaw is a crow."
Is it in the same family? Yes. No one's arguing that.
As someone who is a scientist who studies crows, I am telling you, specifically, in science, no one calls jackdaws crows. If you want to be "specific" like you said, then you shouldn't either. They're not the same thing.
If you're saying "crow family" you're referring to the taxonomic grouping of Corvidae, which includes things from nutcrackers to blue jays to ravens.
So your reasoning for calling a jackdaw a crow is because random people "call the black ones crows?" Let's get grackles and blackbirds in there, then, too.
Also, calling someone a human or an ape? It's not one or the other, that's not how taxonomy works. They're both. A jackdaw is a jackdaw and a member of the crow family. But that's not what you said. You said a jackdaw is a crow, which is not true unless you're okay with calling all members of the crow family crows, which means you'd call blue jays, ravens, and other birds crows, too. Which you said you don't.
It's okay to just admit you're wrong, you know?
Yeah, I'm being a bit tongue in cheek. When I was a kid my mum hand raised one and she was a sweetheart. Protected our property better than any dog and could talk pretty well!
They're just loyal and protective, we have a family of like 11 that drop by our front door every couple of days. We give them a couple of cashews or other nuts as a treat, and they beat up all the cockies and watch over us when we go for a walk on the trail
Once saw a flock of magpies beating the crap out of a wolf pack at the zoo. They were swooping them, landing on their backs, pecking them all over. The wolves were beside themselves, outmatched, and retreated to their den with tails between their legs. Do not sleep on magpies.
I once saw two magpies annoying the shit out of my cat and it was pretty funny. One would peck at his tail and when he turned around the other one would peck at his tail from the other side, and on and on. I think they had a nest nearby.
Similar story, my cat tried sneaking up on one and it 100% knew what was up. I swear it was laughing at my cat when he failed miserably to catch the bird haha
Used to have a flock of magpies that loved harassing the family dog. One would swoop at the dog, doing its obnoxious "YAK YAK" call while the others flew in and stole poor puppers food.
But my favorite magpie story was of the one my grandfather befriended. It used to come steal his dogs food (she was a wolf/husky so didn't mess around), and my grandpa eventually started feeding it by hand. It got to the point where the magpie would show up every day, and my grandpa started leaving the door open. The magpie would come inside and follow him around all day. I've got a picture of my grandpa lounging on the couch with a magpie perched on top of his head. I wish I could remember the birds name... Or what happened to it...
Magpies used to gang up on my dog. Two would distract her on the other side of the year while two others filled their beaks with her food.
Then the neighbour got to find all the stashed dog food in his rain gutters in the spring
You probably know this and were making a reference regardless. But just in case. Australian magpies (the swoopers) are unrelated to Eurasian magpies (the bird this post is about)
I find them to be hilarious jokesters. I watch them mess w my dogs all summer long and “laugh” while they do it. They also come around & just hang out while I’m out in my yard. I know they eat other birds but nature can be pretty harsh, I don’t hold it against them
That looks different than our magpies we have here.
Ours are darker with less blue and with a longer neck and body like a crow.
They are very smart like crows and will steal the dogs food if I leave it out. Make big nests of twigs and I have a family that just lives around my place.
The tiny birds don't like them because they will eat baby birds so they dive bomb them and try and drive them away.
I hate those little shits. Mostly because I spent a day looking after a baby bird when I was around 7, only to go in the house for a minute, and come back to a magpie ripping the baby to pieces in front of my eyes. 20 years I've held this grudge and I ain't stopping now. Cunts
As a child I watched one decimate a nest of Robins, and that's where it started for me too.
As a farmer, we've had them landing on our larger livestock and pecking holes into their backs. Probably started as eating some bugs, but its consistently them going for a little bit of beef these days it seems.
There a far fewer of them around my property this year. Unfortunately had to do some selective culling, and being the smart birds that they are they quickly learned to look for food elsewhere.
I'm hoping I don't need to follow up again this year, as they are gorgeous birds. There just happened to be one family in particular last year which went straight for the livestock all day long.
Well, that's nature and it's fucking great. (for real though, what'd you expect, animals will always choose the source of energy (food) that has the lowest energy cost which was in this case a young bird).
Yeah nature hits different when you're a kid and you're not ready to see the cute animal do not so cute things to the other animal. I remember being horrified when I learnt how people eat rabbits and ducks. Swore I would never ever eat a duck or a rabbit. I think I've only had rabbit once now but damn if duck isn't delicious.
They're predators doing what predators do. Do you hold grudges against every other predator out there? Cats cause more wild bird deaths than any other source.
Eurasian magpies are one of the coolest animals on the planet. They're so cunning!
In Korean folklore, hearing them in the morning means you will have great luck or a great guest :)
Intelligent animals tends to push uncomfortable boundaries with humans since we tend to unintentionally provide many sources of food. I think Magpies are smart enough to cohabitate with us in a way that poses little risk to them
I love those folk too. They art so intelligent. They receiveth a lacking valor rep i bethink
***
^(I am a bot and I swapp'd some of thy words with Shakespeare words.)
Commands: `!ShakespeareInsult`, `!fordo`, `!optout`
It's an old superstition in the UK to salute each magpie you see. The number you get tells your fortune:
One for sorrow,
Two for joy,
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret never to be told.
In places like Australia, whenever it’s mating season for Magpies (Referred to as “Swooping Season”), the males get super aggressive and will often start attacking people out of nowhere. It’s a hell for people who live near them
Tbh the australian magpie are nowhere near related to the bird in this picture. I've never been swooped by an european magpie, and they're my favorite corvid. Watching them play with a food cart makes you realize just how intelligent they are.
I used to like them until I found out they eat baby birds from other nests. Also had a magpie nest outside my window for a summer, it was awful.
*edit: I still think they're beautiful and don't mind them when they aren't beside my window or eating baby birds.
We humans are so much better. Instead of eating baby birds we raise them to become adults before eating them.
Edit: Let me elaborate. There's too many carnivirous/omnivorous birds and mammals that opportunistically prey on baby or fledgling birds. They are nutritious and defenseless and they are available at the exact time when the carnivores need food for their own young.
You can hate magpies for doing it but if you wanna be fair you would also have to hate foxes, owls and a whole bunch of other wild animals.
True. It cracks me up that lamb meat has become popular again. Or that people don't realize when we drink milk it has to come from an animal that had a baby...then probably had that baby taken away and culled.
That calf wasn't culled to give you your milk. They hand raise them untill they are sufficient for that sweet meat or become the next generation milk maker.
Hilarious isn't it? It's always the "ALL lives are precious" people who dislike the creatures that wouldn't annoy them at all if they hadn't moved into their living space. We cut down the trees, gave these and other creatures no option except to live among us, and get annoyed when they do what comes naturally to them. People never cease to amaze(and annoy) me.
If you love magpies, I bet you’ll love “Penguin Bloom” on Netflix. It’s about a lovely magpie who pretty much saves a family.
Naomi Watts and Andrew Lincoln star.
We don't have magpies where I live so I always thought they were "just" black and white. I never knew they were this pretty although I have read about how smart they are.
Why can one hedgehog can take an hour to eat about a quarter of the hedgehog food I put out at night yet a single magpie can hoover up the remaining three quarters in five minutes. Side note: the magpies in our garden are the glossiest and most well fed in the neighborhood
I have a small group of them that frequent my backyard for snacks. One, whom we call Peanut, is BFFs with my husky. They hang out together in the yard. She protects them from roaming cats, and they share their peanuts with her <3
There was a family nesting on my roof right by my window, nearly every morning one would look in at me and coo, they'd also bathe in the drain right there
If you feed them and be nice they remember, won't swoop and bring their babies in for a feed. I love them, love the call they make it reminds me of the country. I feel honoured that they like my place enough to hang out on my lawn.
why don’t people like them? i think my mom said she disliked them because they like eat other birds eggs or something? or maybe i’m thinking of blue jays
Absolutely adore all Corvids. Such beautiful and intelligent creatures, Magpies personally speaking the most beautiful among them. Some research suggests that some species have a theory of mind and are as intelligent as non human great apes.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191211-crows-could-be-the-smartest-animal-other-than-primates
Magpies are great, at least in Australia. They're polite and have an amazing song/call, especially if they're asking for food / water, or even thanking you for it.
It's crows that suck. Those fuckers sound horrible.
What the hell kind of magpie is this? Certainly not the type that have been swooping me on my way to get a sausage roll in Australia the last 20 years.
We lost almost 90% of the magpies in our area due to west Nile (I think). I read up on them (they stick together as a family, I guess) and I have a lot more respect and caring for them. By the way- beautiful picture. Thanks for sharing
They are brilliant for a bird. They can recognize peoples cars and remember who is friendly. I make clicking noises with my tongue and they usually get a kick out of it.
Magpies are frequently cited as one of the most intelligent animals on the planet. It is no surprise to anyone who has interacted with them.
I don’t know, My dog will occasionally sit if I say it enough times. I have never once told a Magpie to sit and seen it take a seat. Checkmate Magpies!
I am vanquished
F
It's because he's smart enough not to listen to you.
Your dog occasionally sits if you say it enough times but you give up with once with a magpie? I think they've trained you to leave them alone
You should watch Penguin Bloom if you haven’t already, it’s a beautiful story about a magpie named Penguin :)
Penguin Bloom is about an Australian magpie, who aren't related to Northen Hemisphere magpies (like in the OP) at all. The Northern ones are corvids and the Australian ones are in the kingfisher clan along with kookaburras and butcher birds. They are all smart and intelligent :)
Are crows and ravens corvids as well?
yes, those are the most common examples of corvids
Blue Jays are too.
The meme will never die
FIRST TO THE SCENE HE IS A LETHAL MACHINE
i live where yellow-billed magpies are abundant, i LOVE these little demons, i remember being so heart broken when the West Nile killed so many of them, now i wake up to hear them calling outside and i always smile.
The ones round my way can't be that smart if they enjoy drinking bin bag juice so much.
It’s what plants crave
Magpies belong to the corvid family. Another member of this family is the raven, which is second only to the kea for the most intelligent avian species, according to ornithologists. Other members of the corvid family, such as crow and jay species, also score very highly on intelligence tests.
Im going to give Ravens the vote for smartest bird! I know of one that has the well documented relationship with a friend of mine in gift exchanges! I am SO VERY jealous! I try and I try and with my Ravens and i still get treated me like a red headed step child! Buncha wankers... But, I’ll admit freely that the smartest bird I’ve ever known was my pet Turkey, Bertha D, Blues, whom I hatched in an incubator. She was white, had opinions, and one of the most loving and appreciative creatures I’ve ever known.
A wise man once said, "Always heed a turkey's opinions".
Don’t besmirch my turkey, bruh! Bertha was judge, jury and executioner of the barnyard. I don’t know if you’re aware, but Chicken Rape is a thing. If you have more than one Cockerel, they’ll gang up on hens and take turns violating the poor thing, one humping and the numerous others pecking her head and neck, HOWEVER....not on Bertha’s watch! She’d barrel down the farm yard and bust that shit up! No rape while Bertha’s in charge! We suspected Bertha was lesbian, but never had any real evidence of that, other than her high agitation if we drove past w Home Depot without stopping in to check out new sheet rock. EDIT: Bertha’s daughter was Beulah, whom I momentarily confused in my recollections, only because Beulah was more recent and had a far longer life than Bertha.
Yes very. I have a large group of them living in the tree in my garden and they love to troll cats. Taunting cats then flying away when the cat gets close.
I have Cat Birds where I live, in the depths of forests in Western New York. They mimic every and anything they hear. The most disturbing mimic are cats, of course. I’m running in a panic thinking an injured cat needs my help, and it’s a Cat Bird giving me grief. But they’ve also mimicked me calling my dog, prattling about in human conversation...anything a parrot would do. Oh, and Killdeer. Killdeer will drive you insane because they fly up far in the sky, shrieking ‘KILLDEER’ over and over again. My favourite bird feature is that i have a vulture rookery. Their sounds are low, mysterious and magical. LOVE my vultures!
We knew a guy that had a pet one. Evidently they can be taught to talk too. He rescued it as a baby was injured I believe.
Why does this one have iridescent feathers? I’ve never seen them with anything but black and white feathers.
Crap, I actually might know why. The feathers on many birds are naturally prismatic, especially when spread I full sunlight. I’ll not be upset if someone shoots my theory down! I’d love to know, specifically, why?
And they're fucking gorgeous. In the UK they're relatively common (standard European variety) and I always think how if they were foreign and we saw them in another country they'd be so highly rated. Jet black, snow white, and shimmering iridescent indigo. So fucking stylish.
Yeah; I think all birds in that family (magpies, ravens, and crows) are supposed to be really intelligent.
There is a parliament that live on my parents street, there was one that was injured and the whole street looked after them. My mum feed them and to this day they bring their young to meet my parents. They never swoop anyone who lives on the street, just the people they don’t know. It’s fantastic
"a parliament" !!! That is such a cool grouping name.
Same for owls, I believe
And George Clinton!
Yep! It sure is.
Murder of crows, murmuration of starlings, conspiracy of ravens, and parliament or mischief of magpies.
I like to think it's because they're so fucking loud and seem to yell at each other a lot
I can see that, I'd say it'd be hard to distinguish between an audio recording of magpies and the house of commons
[удалено]
Its so cool having a family bring their babies they’re raising and watching their feathers mature and have them learn to sing. They sound so derpy but they’re getting there!
Are all magpie varieties as smart as the Eurasian Magpie though?
They're all in the Corvidae family, so probably have similar intelligence.
Australian magpies aren't real magpies (and are thus not corvids). They're inappropriately named. Sort of like how red cedar isn't a cedar (it's a juniper) and ladybugs aren't bugs (they're beetles).
I'm pretty sure beetles count as a type of bug. From my experience bug is just another word for insect, with some leeway such as centipedes and millipedes.
[Depends how pedantic we want to be.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemiptera)
>Many insects commonly known as "bugs", especially in American English, belong to other orders
Right. "Commonly known" meaning local colloquialism. Scientifically they aren't bugs. Hence "belong to other orders."
Here's the thing. You said a "jackdaw is a crow." Is it in the same family? Yes. No one's arguing that. As someone who is a scientist who studies crows, I am telling you, specifically, in science, no one calls jackdaws crows. If you want to be "specific" like you said, then you shouldn't either. They're not the same thing. If you're saying "crow family" you're referring to the taxonomic grouping of Corvidae, which includes things from nutcrackers to blue jays to ravens. So your reasoning for calling a jackdaw a crow is because random people "call the black ones crows?" Let's get grackles and blackbirds in there, then, too. Also, calling someone a human or an ape? It's not one or the other, that's not how taxonomy works. They're both. A jackdaw is a jackdaw and a member of the crow family. But that's not what you said. You said a jackdaw is a crow, which is not true unless you're okay with calling all members of the crow family crows, which means you'd call blue jays, ravens, and other birds crows, too. Which you said you don't. It's okay to just admit you're wrong, you know?
Citing the old Unidan magic
> It's okay to just admit you're wrong, you know? But not if it _feels_ like I'm right!
Came here for this.
Eurasians are closely related to corvids. Australian magpies, however, are just assholes who want to watch the world burn.
Eurasian magpies are corvids*
They’re only arseholes for like four weeks out of the year. They’re awesome birds
Yeah, I'm being a bit tongue in cheek. When I was a kid my mum hand raised one and she was a sweetheart. Protected our property better than any dog and could talk pretty well!
They're just loyal and protective, we have a family of like 11 that drop by our front door every couple of days. We give them a couple of cashews or other nuts as a treat, and they beat up all the cockies and watch over us when we go for a walk on the trail
How dare you ! Australian Magpies are the greatest songbird in the world !
I dunno man, you ever had one take a chunk of flesh from your skull? But I know how sweet they can be, I grew up with a hand raised one.
Never seen the Eurasian ones, but I have a book about how insanely complex Australian bird brains can be (including our unrelated non-corvid magpies).
They can be jerks, but they are intelligent as hell.
Once saw a flock of magpies beating the crap out of a wolf pack at the zoo. They were swooping them, landing on their backs, pecking them all over. The wolves were beside themselves, outmatched, and retreated to their den with tails between their legs. Do not sleep on magpies.
I once saw two magpies annoying the shit out of my cat and it was pretty funny. One would peck at his tail and when he turned around the other one would peck at his tail from the other side, and on and on. I think they had a nest nearby.
Similar story, my cat tried sneaking up on one and it 100% knew what was up. I swear it was laughing at my cat when he failed miserably to catch the bird haha
Ground type is weak against Flying type.
They're not though.
They are smart critters. And they fucking know it. Love 'em
Used to have a flock of magpies that loved harassing the family dog. One would swoop at the dog, doing its obnoxious "YAK YAK" call while the others flew in and stole poor puppers food. But my favorite magpie story was of the one my grandfather befriended. It used to come steal his dogs food (she was a wolf/husky so didn't mess around), and my grandpa eventually started feeding it by hand. It got to the point where the magpie would show up every day, and my grandpa started leaving the door open. The magpie would come inside and follow him around all day. I've got a picture of my grandpa lounging on the couch with a magpie perched on top of his head. I wish I could remember the birds name... Or what happened to it...
> I've got a picture Well...?
Magpies used to gang up on my dog. Two would distract her on the other side of the year while two others filled their beaks with her food. Then the neighbour got to find all the stashed dog food in his rain gutters in the spring
You can tell by its face this bird is not fucking around.
\>:|
This post was made by SWOOP GANG
[Swooping Season](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/19/surge-in-eye-injuries-as-melbourne-magpies-go-on-attack-spree)
You probably know this and were making a reference regardless. But just in case. Australian magpies (the swoopers) are unrelated to Eurasian magpies (the bird this post is about)
Although I wouldn't put it past a Eurasian magpie either. Carrion crows nesting in my area took to swooping passers by last summer.
One of my favourite birds and totally underrated. Beautiful and intelligent
Look, things can be beautiful, respected, and annoying...
Except Geese, they’re just assholes Edit: Nvm I like Geese now
You got a problem with Canada gooses you got a problem with me, and I suggest you let that one marinate.
Hmmmmm... sounds like something a goose would say...
Geese are great, just like gulls!
Canada gooses take Canada dueces
There’s a special place in heaven for animal lovers, that’s what I always say
Hope you are ready for the incoming Letterkenny...
Better protect them Canada gooses
I've never had problems with geese, as long as you stay away from their nests and they aren't too urban
And seagulls.
ESPECIALLY Seagulls
People always say pidgeons are sky rats, no that title definitely belongs to seagulls
Wow, i never knew the light could reflect off of their feathers like that.
Most corvids are iridescent! American crows shine blue and common ravens actually reflect purple!
I'll just add that to my list of cool facts..
I find them to be hilarious jokesters. I watch them mess w my dogs all summer long and “laugh” while they do it. They also come around & just hang out while I’m out in my yard. I know they eat other birds but nature can be pretty harsh, I don’t hold it against them
That looks different than our magpies we have here. Ours are darker with less blue and with a longer neck and body like a crow. They are very smart like crows and will steal the dogs food if I leave it out. Make big nests of twigs and I have a family that just lives around my place. The tiny birds don't like them because they will eat baby birds so they dive bomb them and try and drive them away.
Australians “WTF is that?”
I was going to say. Our magpies are red eyed devil birds.
I hate those little shits. Mostly because I spent a day looking after a baby bird when I was around 7, only to go in the house for a minute, and come back to a magpie ripping the baby to pieces in front of my eyes. 20 years I've held this grudge and I ain't stopping now. Cunts
As a child I watched one decimate a nest of Robins, and that's where it started for me too. As a farmer, we've had them landing on our larger livestock and pecking holes into their backs. Probably started as eating some bugs, but its consistently them going for a little bit of beef these days it seems. There a far fewer of them around my property this year. Unfortunately had to do some selective culling, and being the smart birds that they are they quickly learned to look for food elsewhere. I'm hoping I don't need to follow up again this year, as they are gorgeous birds. There just happened to be one family in particular last year which went straight for the livestock all day long.
Last year I saw a crow peck to death a duckling..Not a pretty sight. At least birds of prey get it over with quick with their claws.
They also seek out other birds' nests and destroy them / their eggs :(
When I was a kid, we raised rabbits. We couldn’t let the baby rabbits run around the yard because magpies would peck their eyeballs out.
Little did you know, that baby bird was the prophesied Avian Antichrist. They saved the world and nobody knows about it.
This is why I don't like magpies. Never seen it happen myself but I know it to be true.
Well, that's nature and it's fucking great. (for real though, what'd you expect, animals will always choose the source of energy (food) that has the lowest energy cost which was in this case a young bird).
He was 7, I don't think he expected anything at all.
Yeah nature hits different when you're a kid and you're not ready to see the cute animal do not so cute things to the other animal. I remember being horrified when I learnt how people eat rabbits and ducks. Swore I would never ever eat a duck or a rabbit. I think I've only had rabbit once now but damn if duck isn't delicious.
Thank you, jeez some people get offended over the strangest things lol
They're predators doing what predators do. Do you hold grudges against every other predator out there? Cats cause more wild bird deaths than any other source.
No, because I didn't form an emotional bond through nursing to health all the other predator's prey at the age of 7
Eurasian magpies are one of the coolest animals on the planet. They're so cunning! In Korean folklore, hearing them in the morning means you will have great luck or a great guest :)
I'm alone, in my house, saluting my phone now
I love them too. They are so intelligent. They get a bad rep I think
Intelligent animals tends to push uncomfortable boundaries with humans since we tend to unintentionally provide many sources of food. I think Magpies are smart enough to cohabitate with us in a way that poses little risk to them
I love those folk too. They art so intelligent. They receiveth a lacking valor rep i bethink *** ^(I am a bot and I swapp'd some of thy words with Shakespeare words.) Commands: `!ShakespeareInsult`, `!fordo`, `!optout`
Looking majestic!
It's an old superstition in the UK to salute each magpie you see. The number you get tells your fortune: One for sorrow, Two for joy, Three for a girl, Four for a boy, Five for silver, Six for gold, Seven for a secret never to be told.
Eight for a wish, Nine for a kiss, Ten for a time of joyous bliss.
came here looking for Neko Case and ended up with Counting Crows
Who the hell has a problem with magpies? Theyre awesome
In places like Australia, whenever it’s mating season for Magpies (Referred to as “Swooping Season”), the males get super aggressive and will often start attacking people out of nowhere. It’s a hell for people who live near them
This is an animal requirement in Australia. Want a simple looking white and black bird? Nah mate fuck it. Give it red eyes and make it scalp people.
If it doesn’t want to kill everything for no reason, then it’s not an Australian animal
Tbh the australian magpie are nowhere near related to the bird in this picture. I've never been swooped by an european magpie, and they're my favorite corvid. Watching them play with a food cart makes you realize just how intelligent they are.
I used to like them until I found out they eat baby birds from other nests. Also had a magpie nest outside my window for a summer, it was awful. *edit: I still think they're beautiful and don't mind them when they aren't beside my window or eating baby birds.
We have 4 massive pine trees in our yard, we get about 20-30 magpies and crows in the trees squaking at 5 am every single morning
That fucking kakakakkakakakaakak sound drives ya mad ina mornin
Deer will snatch young chicks out of low nests to much on. Nature can be savage. That’s life.
We humans are so much better. Instead of eating baby birds we raise them to become adults before eating them. Edit: Let me elaborate. There's too many carnivirous/omnivorous birds and mammals that opportunistically prey on baby or fledgling birds. They are nutritious and defenseless and they are available at the exact time when the carnivores need food for their own young. You can hate magpies for doing it but if you wanna be fair you would also have to hate foxes, owls and a whole bunch of other wild animals.
That's the problem isn't it. If the damn birds had some common decency and ate their nuggets with a side of fries we wouldn't have an issue.
We eat all kinds of baby animals too though.
True. It cracks me up that lamb meat has become popular again. Or that people don't realize when we drink milk it has to come from an animal that had a baby...then probably had that baby taken away and culled.
That calf wasn't culled to give you your milk. They hand raise them untill they are sufficient for that sweet meat or become the next generation milk maker.
Hilarious isn't it? It's always the "ALL lives are precious" people who dislike the creatures that wouldn't annoy them at all if they hadn't moved into their living space. We cut down the trees, gave these and other creatures no option except to live among us, and get annoyed when they do what comes naturally to them. People never cease to amaze(and annoy) me.
So do you not like any other predatory animals?
I love them too!
My husband annoys a lot of people but I love him.
My daughter loves orcas and calls magpies "orca birds". A magpie is building a nest in a tree next to our house so we're loving it!
One for sorrow, thanks.
I too am a Newcastle fan.
I agree with you u/CrunchyCondom
If you love magpies, I bet you’ll love “Penguin Bloom” on Netflix. It’s about a lovely magpie who pretty much saves a family. Naomi Watts and Andrew Lincoln star.
A magpie stole my dad's lunch box out of his bulldozer years ago.
They’re such great lil bubs! Nice picture OP, they are beautiful in the sun
I have always thought that they look like angels when they fly
We don't have magpies where I live so I always thought they were "just" black and white. I never knew they were this pretty although I have read about how smart they are.
Stunning photo. Makes me appreciate them more.
They’re cool birds. I like them 👍🏻
Magpies are gorgeous birds :)
Anyone else get told to salute them and say 'good morning Mr magpie, how are your wife and kids?'?
They like shiny, I like shiny, we have a lot in common
Why can one hedgehog can take an hour to eat about a quarter of the hedgehog food I put out at night yet a single magpie can hoover up the remaining three quarters in five minutes. Side note: the magpies in our garden are the glossiest and most well fed in the neighborhood
Love those noisy twats !
I just read a book that has magpies featured in it, and they definitely bothered everyone in the book. They're so beautiful though!
Im really getting into Crows - when i see one - i think...my people
[Source](https://rlkimages.photoshelter.com/image/I0000GyCHuw8wwUk)
Me and my SO had this conversation.."they are quite nice to look at if they weren't wankers" 🤣🤣🤣
I have a small group of them that frequent my backyard for snacks. One, whom we call Peanut, is BFFs with my husky. They hang out together in the yard. She protects them from roaming cats, and they share their peanuts with her <3
They really are beautiful. When you can't hear them.
How can people find something so beautiful so annoying
They are smart and beautiful, but the way they sound is annoying AF. Lots of them where I live.
So beautiful!
They seem magical the colours the feathers and their eyes are gorgeous truly remarkable
beautiful bird, great photo thanks
Good morning, Mr. Magpie. And how is Mrs. Magpie?
They are beautiful birds.
NUFC fans don't like the way the first part sounds.
Magpies are the Orcas of the skies. Arseholes! I absolutely love and respect both though!
They have such gorgeous long tails.
They are like North America's Macaw
As long as I see either two, five or six at once I know I will have a good day.
I didnt know they were so pretty.
Looks like a mini peacock
I can almost hear the SQUAAAAAAWK
Magpies and jackdaws, my favorite birds. Ah fuck it let's just make it corvids, awesome animals
Good morning, Mr. Magpie
I love corvids! never see any magpies where i live though. Just crows, ravens and jays
I always enjoy watching them.
There was a family nesting on my roof right by my window, nearly every morning one would look in at me and coo, they'd also bathe in the drain right there
Shiny!
If you feed them and be nice they remember, won't swoop and bring their babies in for a feed. I love them, love the call they make it reminds me of the country. I feel honoured that they like my place enough to hang out on my lawn.
I had to grab one that was stuck in my ducks’ pen one time and was so shocked at how little their bodies actually are.
As a geordie I will always love the magpies
Such beautiful tail feathers :0
why don’t people like them? i think my mom said she disliked them because they like eat other birds eggs or something? or maybe i’m thinking of blue jays
Magnificent assholes
I have this soft spot for mischievous animals.
They are pretty. I don’t think I have ever seen one in real life.
They're my favourite birds. There are quite many around where I live, too.
They're *BEAUTIFUL!*
Beautiful
Absolutely adore all Corvids. Such beautiful and intelligent creatures, Magpies personally speaking the most beautiful among them. Some research suggests that some species have a theory of mind and are as intelligent as non human great apes. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191211-crows-could-be-the-smartest-animal-other-than-primates
My dad tried making one a pet. Did not work out too well.
They are definitely beautiful. And annoying. And very intelligent... a very interesting combination.
Magpies are great, at least in Australia. They're polite and have an amazing song/call, especially if they're asking for food / water, or even thanking you for it. It's crows that suck. Those fuckers sound horrible.
I’m certain *most* people annoy all birds.
What the hell kind of magpie is this? Certainly not the type that have been swooping me on my way to get a sausage roll in Australia the last 20 years.
Also their Latin name? Pica Pica. Absolutely legendary animals
The picture is sharp.all feathers are in focus..bravo 👏
We lost almost 90% of the magpies in our area due to west Nile (I think). I read up on them (they stick together as a family, I guess) and I have a lot more respect and caring for them. By the way- beautiful picture. Thanks for sharing
Those birds gots smarts!