Magpies

[Whiskyfromsmallglasses]

Why are they so noisy??! That's all I want to know 😂I've had a nesting pair in the tree next to my house for two years now and my god that harsh grating sound they make is very annoying. Before anyone comes at me I love garden birds, I feed them, provide baths etc but these two are quite frankly a pair of arseholes

I feel your pain.
I strongly dislike magpies. I've several pairs around here. Noisy killers!!
In the spring they dropped baby birds and eggs they'd stolen from other nests into my garden. They're like big bullies to all the other birds...with the exception of the seagulls who are also arseholes!

I feel your pain.
I strongly dislike magpies. I've several pairs around here. Noisy killers!!
In the spring they dropped baby birds and eggs they'd stolen from other nests into my garden. They're like big bullies to all the other birds...with the exception of the seagulls who are also arseholes!

To be fair on these two I haven't seen them chase or kill any of the smaller birds, they are just so noisy all the time. They must have young but I never see them (the tree is very thick) yeah I agree seagulls are also on par on the arsehole scale of birds

Be grateful you have a pair! My DM has to salute a solitary magpie every time she sees one in order to avoid whatever catastrophe might befall her if she fails to do that.

I’m with you OP. They start their cacking noise at 4am in the tree outside my window and if I had a gun I might shoot them
But aren’t they beautiful with the sun shining on them…

Yes, I was in the garden this morning and one was screeching at me, they bully the smaller birds off the feeders and hound them generally, look disdainfully at the cats and generally are a pain. But they are beautiful. I don't do any of the saluting or morning mr magpie stuff, more like mutter at them.

Oh yeah they are beautiful birds! Just arseholes in general. They were getting very agitated at the neighbours cat the other day (which I might add was in its own garden lying in the sun 3 doors up from their tree) they were in the cats garden on the porch roof screeching at the cat down below 😂

Noise is part of their survival strategy - they use it to warn each other of danger and to scare off predators. The young also use it to make sure they get fed.

I’m sure I’m spectacularly missing the light hearted nature of this thread, but I wouldn’t call them arseholes. It’s just that their lifestyle doesn’t always align with mine 😂

They’re surprisingly community minded though. They will defend each other and fellow corvids when necessary. I once had 30+ circling my garden. They’d come to backup the local jackdaw population, who had taken offence at the neighbours’ cat. They were risking their lives to get this cat to move.

"It’s just that their lifestyle doesn’t always align with mine".

My raspberry bush aligned very nicely with my local magpies this year.

If it’s any consolation, my cat hates them too.
I see black and white feathers all over the decking!

Maybe it’s that corvids are the birds most similar to humans? Social, intelligent, communicative.

I loathe them - and there are more round here than I have ever seen before. They steal the birds food, attack the smaller birds, saw one bloody thing scare off a pair of blue tits and pecked the babies out of the nest to throw them on the floor, Hateful birds.

My magpies are generally lovely. They don't bully the little birds. They seem to have equal standing with the wood pigeons when it comes to my birdfeeders and they generally take it in turns along with the jackdaws.

It's the starlings that swoop in like a naughty gang of teenage hooligans that seem to do the most bullying!

Indeed. They are the 'humans' of the bird world.

The comments on this thread tell you all you need to know!!

A few weeks ago we were in London and found out why people drink outside the cafe on the Serpentine but only eat inside - mugged by young starlings till we beat a hasty retreat 😂

😂😂😂😂😂 I rest my case!