Young Australian Magpie
Australian Magpie
I have been a little puzzled about our resident pair of Australian Magpies this spring. Although they showed signs of building a nest earlier in the spring they seemed to abandon the idea after a few days. I had observed them refurbishing the nest they have used for the last four or five years. Instead of continuing the nest building and then sitting on the eggs and finally being busy feeding the young in the nest, they seemed content to just occupy themselves searching for food during the day, visiting the bird bath (as in the photo above) or chasing away the White-winged Choughs whenever they came into the garden.
I thought they’d given up on breeding this season.
It seems I was wrong. Earlier this week I was passing the garage when I saw a young magpie fresh out of the nest, all downy and begging for food.
This is perplexing. I still haven’t found any nest. There are two possible explanations:
- They made a new nest in a location I haven’t yet discovered. This is entirely possible as it would take quite a while to check every tree on our five acre block.
- The young bird I saw was from a neighbouring magpie territory and it had wandered into our garden.
It does not matter. It is good to see that at least one magpie was hatched in this locality this year.
Good birding.
Follow my Twitters
Baby Magpies are beautiful! I have a mum and dad in my front yard with their two babies; they come twice a day for food. In my back yard there’s a threesome; two females and one male and together they have three babies. Both sets of parents, front and back yard seem to be good and attentive which is great. I understand that the parents will chase them away at around the ten month mark because I see it every year. This is where I have a question….
My mother has a pair in her front yard. Last year the first clutch of three all died and they bred for a second time in November. Baby was fine and around the nine month mark the father started attacking the baby and eventually chased her away… very sad because my mum was really attached.
About a month later they had a new baby which has been out the nest for around six weeks and they are barely feeding it. They’ve now decided to have a second clutch (still in nest) which is taking up all their time and poor baby is left to fend for itself. My mum has been feeding the baby but it has had little training on “how” to eat and other birds come along and steal the food. It just seems like the parents have abandoned it. Does anyone know why this happens? OR are they just bad parents?
I’ve read the Gisela Kaplan book which is a fantastic read but doesn’t give a whole lot of detail on why the parent Magpies act like they do.
Any comments appreciated.
L.
Hi there,
Thanks for visiting and leaving some comments. Sorry about the delay in replying.
I’m not sure what is happening with the magpies you are watching. There are several possibilities:
1. The adults could indeed be poor parents – it happens.
2. The adults could be inexperienced at breeding – some take several broods to learn the ropes.
3. The breeding drive is very powerful and they may be keener on raising a new brood than looking after the previous brood.
4. The abandoned juvenile is possibly diseased in some way so they are rejecting it, knowing it is destined to die soon. (Sounds cruel in human terms but it would be better expending the energy on a new brood).
Is it worth keeping it in an aviary or large cage to prevent its food being taken? Or even inside until it is ready to be fully independent?