Kamikaze Magpie Under Seige

I’m no twitcher, but…

Crow/raven:
http://www.ozanimals.com/Bird/Australian-Raven/Corvus/coronoides.html
Althought there are a few other species, I don’t recall any with white patches – mainly size and eye colour differences.

Currawong (white patches on wings):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currawong

Will be consulting my field guide when I get home I think.

Gungahlin Al said :

I watched a crow (Australian Raven) ‘talk’ with a 3yo girl for about 10 minutes the other day. The crow’s mimickry was brilliant. Amazing to watch.

I was talking about the european crow, not the australian raven (they have big white patches on their wings)

have a few ravens here, and a colony of black cockatoos, corellas, some fruit bats come in summer, kambah seems to be an ok place to be a bird. and i knew spring was on the way when i heard the small bat calls last night.

Beautiful writing Rosebud! Thanks.

I watched a crow (Australian Raven) ‘talk’ with a 3yo girl for about 10 minutes the other day. The crow’s mimickry was brilliant. Amazing to watch.

Man…the crazy stuff that goes on in Gungahlin! 😛 Pretty cool tho

“That seems a little unreasonable – killing something because for a short period every year it protects its own nest”
Not really if it presents such a danger as to distract bike riders that they may crash or worse still, run into the path of a car. I equate my thinking on this as to advice frequently given as to hitting a kangaroo when driving a car, far more accidents and injuries occur through people swerving to avoid the kangaroo. Better to hit it.

I watched a crow (Australian Raven) ‘talk’ with a 3yo girl for about 10 minutes the other day. The crow’s mimickry was brilliant. Amazing to watch.

PsydFX said :

imarty said :

I do agree however with euthanasia for those particularly aggressive ones that actually make contact. The danger they present outweighs the need to protect them and they’re hardly endangered.

That seems a little unreasonable – killing something because for a short period every year it protects its own nest.

but it sadly has to happen on occasion. suburbs are a battlefield with magpies defending their territory, crows starting to appear – I will chuck rocks at those buggers, and the ever present currawong, crow of the native animals.

imarty said :

I do agree however with euthanasia for those particularly aggressive ones that actually make contact. The danger they present outweighs the need to protect them and they’re hardly endangered.

That seems a little unreasonable – killing something because for a short period every year it protects its own nest.

caf said :

rosebud: You might (or might not) be interested to know that Yamamoto was an Admiral, not a pilot.

I’m certainly no military historian. But I am pretty sure that he was pretty important to the development of naval aviation.

rosebud: You might (or might not) be interested to know that Yamamoto was an Admiral, not a pilot.

I love magpies despite having been swooped many times. This week my 2 1/2 year old son and I have taken to feeding one that has a nest just over our back fence.
He loves it as all we have to do is go out the back, he sings out “magpie” and down it comes, up very close as he can’t throw very far. He can even do a reasonable magpie warble.
I do agree however with euthanasia for those particularly aggressive ones that actually make contact. The danger they present outweighs the need to protect them and they’re hardly endangered.

if there is one aniaml i hate, its magpies. I have been attcked by one, and although it was many years ago, i am still terrified of the things – i had to have stiches where its beak stabbed me
There was also 2 extremely vicous magpies that hung around my primary school, one of them ripped someones ear in half.
Anyway the rangers moved the 2 magpies up to queansland somewhere, and a few weeks later they had found there way back.

toriness said :

i had never experienced the terror of the magpie (only the dreaded plover!) until i moved to canberra. and there i was, happily rollerblading in the sunshine through dickson when 3 of the black and white beggars started divebombing me all at once. i cowered by a street sign holding my blades over my head for protection until a cabdriver seeing my plight and having pity, pulled over and threw open the door, telling me to JUMP IN! and he gave a lift around the corner to safety. i am terrified to this day and flinch at any sudden movement i sense out of the corner of my eyes… but i still would never hurt one!

I feel your pain! Yamamoto nearly took my eye out! He flew at an angle to avoid my bike helmet and threw his entire body at my face three times before finally drawing blood about 1cm from my eye.

i had never experienced the terror of the magpie (only the dreaded plover!) until i moved to canberra. and there i was, happily rollerblading in the sunshine through dickson when 3 of the black and white beggars started divebombing me all at once. i cowered by a street sign holding my blades over my head for protection until a cabdriver seeing my plight and having pity, pulled over and threw open the door, telling me to JUMP IN! and he gave a lift around the corner to safety. i am terrified to this day and flinch at any sudden movement i sense out of the corner of my eyes… but i still would never hurt one!

Typical stupid modern human attitude – it is bugging me, so I’ll kill it.

The bird is behaving naturally, protecting its nest, so try not going near the nesting site, or if you have to, hold a stick above your head – magpies will generally attack the highest point.

rosebud said :

miz said :

Is it true that feeding birds aspirin makes them explode? Or is it just seagulls? (Not that I would ever countenance such a thing, but I have a teenage son who comes home with these stories . . . at least I hope they are stories . . .)

It’s an urban myth.

This thread has somehow taken on a distinctly distasteful note. I am in NO WAY in favour of hurting animals in anyway. Let’s all be nice to our feathered friends hey?

for the duck may be somebody’s mother.

Leather?

miz said :

Off topic – S4anta, who does look ‘good’ in lycra then? (I have my doubts anyone could).

first thought was Suzi Quattro. did she wear lycra?

Off topic – S4anta, who does look ‘good’ in lycra then? (I have my doubts anyone could).

miz said :

Is it true that feeding birds aspirin makes them explode? Or is it just seagulls? (Not that I would ever countenance such a thing, but I have a teenage son who comes home with these stories . . . at least I hope they are stories . . .)

It’s an urban myth.

This thread has somehow taken on a distinctly distasteful note. I am in NO WAY in favour of hurting animals in anyway. Let’s all be nice to our feathered friends hey?

miz said :

Is it true that feeding birds aspirin makes them explode? Or is it just seagulls? (Not that I would ever countenance such a thing, but I have a teenage son who comes home with these stories . . . at least I hope they are stories . . .)

if they are covered in blood and feathers, worry.

Is it true that feeding birds aspirin makes them explode? Or is it just seagulls? (Not that I would ever countenance such a thing, but I have a teenage son who comes home with these stories . . . at least I hope they are stories . . .)

S4anta said :

1. wet bread so it goes doughy.
2. liberally cover said wet bread with with chilli/cayenne pepper
3. roll into little balls and feed to bird

As bird grabs bread ball and flies away wait for about three seconds and when it ‘coughs’ it will fold it wings in involuntarily(sp?), falling out of sky and forcing into a fairly rapid attempt to get itself back air born again.

Nearly as funny as fat people in lycra.

That is terrible! I can’t agree with torturing a creature, no matter how funny it may sound in the writing. And as for the Magpies, I’m appalled at the suggestion. It is bad bad juju that you propose.

1. wet bread so it goes doughy.
2. liberally cover said wet bread with with chilli/cayenne pepper
3. roll into little balls and feed to bird

As bird grabs bread ball and flies away wait for about three seconds and when it ‘coughs’ it will fold it wings in involuntarily(sp?), falling out of sky and forcing into a fairly rapid attempt to get itself back air born again.

Nearly as funny as fat people in lycra.

My son hit a maggie with his skateboard a few years ago (in self-defence) and killed it. Not sure if this kind of horrible death is preferable to euthanasing? Except, I suppose, it died doing what it loved best . .

Apparently maggies get hormonal this time of year and, given their exceptional memory and longevity, they are therefore likely to Bear a Grudge For a Long Time. So I guess the moral is, don’t torment them and they won’t get so karmically vicious.

peterh said :

and if that doesn’t work, you would get a magpie that would stick to bikes. hmmm. no.[/quote>

Funny!

Gungahlin Al said :

“if you release them in the brindabellas, they come back”
Maybe you need to put magnets in the cage when relocating them to mess up their tracking system? Or tie a little magnet to it’s leg to permanently mess it up?
🙂

and if that doesn’t work, you would get a magpie that would stick to bikes. hmmm. no.

“if you release them in the brindabellas, they come back”
Maybe you need to put magnets in the cage when relocating them to mess up their tracking system? Or tie a little magnet to it’s leg to permanently mess it up?
🙂

hit him with a stick when he swoops, that should sort him out quick fast.

Do they maybe have a minature cyclist in there?).

Haha *grins*. Get Wonka’s shrinking machine in and I’ll do it!

As I said in the other thread – Alfred Hitchcock would be proud.

I once punched a magpie in the face. Didn’t mean to, it was swooping me from behind.

they will take it away and euthanise it. there is no other option – if you release them in the brindabellas, they come back (and are now madder than ever, after being transported away from their nest)