Why are magpies so cruel?

linedancer16 | 10:47 Thu 05th May 2011 | Animals & Nature

43 Answers

I've just had an upsetting morning! I've been watching a nesting pair of blackbirds for weeks now - building the nest, the male guarding its territory etc- until this morning when I had to rescue a very young baby from a magpie which had taken it from the nest and was viciously pecking at it. Why do magpies do this? The same thing happened next door last year. I rang my vet who said to bring it down but he said it was too badly hurt and too young to survive and the kindest thing to do was to put it to sleep. I dont know if there are any other babies in the nest as its deep in a hedge and I havent disturbed it. I know nature can be cruel but those two blackbirds had worked so hard and the mother blackbird must wonder what has happened to her baby. It's really spoiled my day!

Hedgehogs and Rubbish

Is it normal for my cat to only have two kittens?

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redman41

hello Loftie hope you are well ?
How's that beautiful garden of yours these days, full of Flowers and Birds I'm sure !
Lucky you

Marijn

I think magpies are cruel. A while ago a magpie got in the run with my guinea pigs and pulled all the fur off their bottoms. The had completely bald pink bottoms with all bloodied scratches on. Luckily they'd hidden their faces in the tubes they like to play in. I sprayed them with saline solution until their fur grew back. I've also seen magpies gang up on a cat that visits my garden. And my sister saw them attacking a puppy. I don't think they intended to eat the guinea pigs, cat or puppy. They are just cruel bastards.

LoftyLottie

I'm fine. The garden is so dry. Am praying for some rain - we haven't had any for ages. I am fed up with hosing and watering.

Notafish. The magpies would have seen your guinea pigs as food and the puppy and cat as potential dangers and predators. Cruelty involves scheming and getting pleasure from cruel acts. Only man is capable of this. Animals act instinctively. Magpies are carnivores, they see small animals as a meal.

One of our resident robins is attacking our cat regularly at the moment (the cat comes rushing in scared!!). Robin is only protecting her babies!

Marijn

No, the magpies attacked the cat and the puppy for no reason, they weren't being threatened. I don't believe humans are the only creatures capable of being cruel, and you won't convince me otherwise. My guinea pig run had fur all over it, I really thought they were dead by the amount of carnage there was. I got my neighbour to look in their play-tubes cos I didn't know what I'd be faced with. it was very upsetting.The guinea pigs were so clever to keep their faces protected, bless them.

LoftyLottie

We have to agree to differ. Whether or not the puppy or cat were actually threatening the magpie would see them as being threatening. My cat is not interested in birds at all but they all grumble and threaten her whenever she appears.
Guinea pigs would definitely be seen as food.

Poor little guinea pigs though - I am so glad they are OK . Must have been horrible for them and for you.

I don't like witnessing animals attacking other animals Notafish, and I am upset too when I see anything distressing, but I accept that it is natural behaviour for the animal and not cruelty.

ladybirder

If these "leave them lone" remarks are directed at me you're wasting your time. The magpies in my garden get fed loads of lovely fat juicy meal worms by me but they're not having my blackbirds as well if I can help it. Not while I'm watching anyway.

murraymints

when I lived in Norfolk it was sparrowhawks that got to me...attacking mid flight...

carlton23

Tigers and Lions kill cubs of another pride just to mate with the female and if possible kill the male of the pride, but that`s nature.

LoftyLottie

Ladybirder, my remarks were certainly not directed at you - honestly. If I am about when the sparrowhawks or jays turn up I too chase them off, but I can't feel any anger towards them for acting like they do and I can't be on duty all the time. I have hardened to the facts of nature since I have lived very rurally. However, I can never come to terms with men killing animals for sport - that is simply not natural.

Murray I came literally face to face with a sparrowhawk just recently, he was swooping across the garden as I turned a corner - I don't know who was the most surprised. I don't know how he missed me.

ladybirder

Lottie I don't feel any anger towards them I understand that's the way things are BUT I didn't think, I just acted. And I feel proprietorial towards my blackbirds and their nest. The magpies can have next doors but not mine:-) And I feel exactly the same as you about killing for sport, I hate it even though I have lived a lot of my life in the countryside in Wales and North Yorkshire. But I do think there might be a case for culling the grey squirrel to save our native reds, such gorgeous little creatures.

LoftyLottie

I would have done the same as you ladybirder. I had a particular favourite blackbird who was virtually eating from my hand. A couple of weeks ago I found his head and a pile of feathers - sparrowhawk!! I was so, so sad. I buried his head :o(

momac

Linedancer.16...I hate seeing any sort of cruelty where any type of animal is concerned..it really disturbs me...I'm afraid nature is cruel.

linedancer16

Question Author

Thanks everyone. Your answers certainly showed many varying points of view which really made me think. My blackbirds are still going in the hedge so I shall be vigilant watching for magpies and hope any other babies survive.

RATTER15

The term "My Blackbirds" does make me smile :-)

I can also see both sides of the coin with regards to hunting. I was brought up hunting as from childhood, this eventually took me into rat hunting with terriers, then into pest control. When I started having to kill rats and mice etc out of necessity it made me see the futility of killing for sport, then when I sold the pest control company, I had by then seen enough killing to last me a lifetime.
These days I even rescue spiders and unknown bugs, I'm actually afraid of spiders and many bugs, that however does not mean I have to kill them, I will usually find some way of catching them alive and releasing them.

LoftyLottie

Like you Ratter, I kill nothing if I can help it. Would never stamp on an insect on purpose. I usher wasps out of the house.

My only exception is houseflies I am afraid! I don't like myself because I swat them but I don't want them in my house and sometimes I have no choice.

boxtops

This is an interesting thread - and like linedancer, many of us are inclined to imagine that the birds have the same senses as we do, in terms of loss and so on. I was told when I was small that the blackbirds wouldn't really know one baby had gone, they would just nourish the ones left - this is the same principle with the cuckoo. the host mother doesn't know her own babies have been tipped out of the nest, all she knows is there is a baby and it needs feeding, even if it's not hers. Nature is indeed red in tooth and claw.

wildwood

In a roundabout way the magpies are helping the blackbirds to survive. Only the backbirds that are smart enough to hide their nests from predation will survive to pass their genes on. If all young blackbirds made it to adult, there would be so many that most would go hungry anyway as their territory size is regulated by the amount of food available.