Australian Magpies nesting
Australian Magpie
While working in the garden pruning the fruit trees this morning, I noticed that our resident Australian Magpies are getting ready to breed. They are currently refurbishing the nest used last year. Fortunately we don’t have to worry about them swooping us because “our” magpies are a docile mob – unlike some magpies in other parts of the country.
Several previous articles on this topic may be of interest to new readers.
There are plenty of maggies and plovers on campus, which means that we have to warn the overseas students of the havoc that’s about to be unleashed. I ended up giving one of them a lift to the station once because the plovers had traumatised him! (And visitors think it’s just the spiders and snakes that cause the problems …)
On a slightly different note, today I saw a magpie-lark harrassing a pelican in flight. I hope the magpie-lark kept at the tail end because the pelican was mightly upset.
That reminds me of an incident we experienced several years ago. We were on a caravan holiday at Nelson (far SW Victoria) and befriended a Swedish cyclist on his way from Perth to Melbourne.
He admitted he had studiously prepared for the dangers of our snakes, sharks and spiders but no-one had warned him about our maggies. Showed us the dent in his helmet. He thought he was being attacked by an eagle.
i have a one she is nesting i my yard but i raised her from a baby evry morning and afternoon she comes down and begs for food her mate thinks she is crazy but she is cute im looking forward too her new babies
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment Erin. I am pleased you enjoy our native birds.
Is there any way i can get some of these loose tails? Im a Native American from the United States and would like to use these birds for ceremonial purposes.
Hi there RJ,
Sorry – it would be illegal in Australia to collect the feathers and send them to you. Sounds harsh – but that’s our law. You might be able to get some through an Australian Museum from people who are licensed to collect such things. Ordinary citizens like myself cannot do that. Nor can we collect their eggs. There are even strict rules about keeping some bird species in cages.
Can someone tell me what a madpie’s nest looks like. I have found a nest about 6 inches wide made from a mud base and lined with small leaf stems. We have a lot of magpies around which are quite tame. Does this sound like a magpie’s nest?
Hi Elizabeth, sorry about the delay in replying. Magpie nests are about twice that size and never use mud. They are usually made of sticks, sometimes lined with grass and occasionally have odd things like fencing wire, coat hangers and plastic as well. One that blew down in our garden had box thorn in it!
What you are seeing is probably an Australian Magpie Lark’s nest. Other Australian species to make mud nests include many of our swallows, White Winged Choughs and Apostlebirds.
What is the actual size of a magpies nest