Interesting fact: It's true, magpies remember your face. They have excellent recall for faces and very long memories. So, if you've been swooped before, or even if you just look like someone they swooped last year, you're likely to get the same treatment again.
And since magpies can live between 25 and 30 years and are territorial, they can develop lifelong friendships with humans. This bond can extend to trusting certain people around their offspring.
According to all the info, magpies will follow us and find out where we live, no matter what route we take home. Also, they can remember a face for up t five years… Basically, you're going to have a stalker for five years, waiting to swoop you once swooping season comes 'round.
"They will form very long friendships, like dogs," she said. "They will introduce their young [to you] and they will be the most charming birds. "Even during the breeding season you can come close to them because they know you'll do no harm."
Only a few magpies see people as a threat. Most will not swoop you. Magpies see cats, dogs and other magpies as intruders - it's not just people they swoop. Harassment by humans causes some magpies to start swooping.
If you wave your arms about or shout, the magpies will see you as a threat to the nest – and not just this year, but for up to five years to come. Walk, don't run. Avoid making eye contact with the birds. If you know of an area that has swooping magpies, put a sign up to warn passers-by.
Like dogs, magpies seem to sense fear and may capitalise on this by pressing on with harassing any perceived threat. Occasionally, a magpie will actually strike an intruder on the head with its bill. While such strikes are rare, magpies can inflict serious injuries.
“The standard method is to feed them a bit and they do respond really quickly to food; I have examples I have seen where people were swooped out the front of their house, but after the magpie began to see them regularly, and they offered food, it made an instant difference.”
Instead, it is widely believed that they swoop purely to protect their young. Although they may not be enraged by certain colours, magpies that swoop tend to target specific types of people. For instance, some magpies will only swoop cyclists, while others will target pedestrians.
In a series of experiments, British scientists debunked the common myth that magpies are inveterate trinket thieves. They found that far from being attracted to shiny objects, the black and white birds tended to avoid them.
Magpies are able to recognize themselves in a mirror – a testament to how self-aware they are. These birds are able to recognize up to 30 different human faces and can mimic human speech, earning the title of one of the smartest birds in the world!
The common magpie is one of the most intelligent birds—and one of the most intelligent animals to exist. Their brain-to-body-mass ratio is outmatched only by that of humans and equals that of aquatic mammals and great apes.
Magpies sing to reinforce their claim on their territory, mostly at dawn and dusk. Image: Michelle Hall. But while we are all familiar with the magpie's melodious carolling, we are perhaps less familiar with their other calls. Magpies use many different calls, including grunting noises, to communicate.
Magpies generally cop a bit of flack this time of the year but one bird in Dunsborough Lakes might be the most generous in the South West. A female magpie recently gave Sandra St Jack a small soft toy, in exchange for items for her nest. Ms St Jack soon realised the toy belonged to her neighbour Lauren's dog Leonard.
Is It Okay to Feed Magpies? It's best not to feed magpies. Apart from giving them wrong foods that may damage their health, magpies can easily become territorial birds around people and other birds. They will view people they have never seen before as intruders.
Salute the magpie. Say 'Good morning general' or 'Good morning captain'. Say 'Good morning Mr Magpie, how is your lady wife today? '
They can also feel, have empathy and even grieve for the death of a partner; magpies in particular, apart from parrots, can form long-term friendships with humans or their dogs.
Magpies are really quite lovable and it is easy to learn to live with these wonderful birds. A magpie friend is a good friend to have, particularly in the garden where it will eat up all your grubs!
The diet of a magpie
Their main diet in summer is grassland invertebrates, such as beetles, flies, caterpillars, spiders, worms and leatherjackets. In winter, they eat more plant material, such as wild fruits, berries and grains, with household scraps and food scavenged from bird tables or chicken runs, pet foods etc.
What do they eat? Magpies feed on small insects and animals that live on, or just under, the surface of the ground. A favourite is the scarab beetle, which is a major pest of garden lawns. Magpies will also eat frogs, small lizards, meat scraps and grain.
Magpies can remember faces and hold grudges. Researchers in Brisbane, Australia have found that magpies will remember facial features and target those individuals. The research involved an individual in a mask, coming close enough to nests to make the magpies feel threatened.
Deterrents for magpies
Half-full plastic bottles or CDs hung up in trees to scare the predators away. Magpies don't like the way light reflects from the surface. GuardnEyes scarecrow balloon, available from Dazer UK. It may be possible to deter them by playing a tape of a crow or rook distress call.