While it may be tempting to feed magpies your kitchen scraps, it's best to stick to their natural diet. This includes insects, worms and bugs. You can either source these from your garden, or purchase them from your local pet store.
Magpies mainly eat insects, worms, spiders, lizards, mice and seed. The ability to forage is important for magpies, so introduce fledglings to this by: sprinkling wiggly worms on fruits, kibble and other food items. place bright coloured items like corn in their enclosure as this can inspire probing beaks.
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.
If you think the young bird is in danger, move it to a safe place nearby, on a branch or off the ground in the shade. Make sure the parents can still find it so they can continue to care for it. Unless the bird is injured, it is best to leave magpie baby birds well alone, as its parents are usually close by.
Although baby birds do not drink, in our artificial situation, and when the weather is very hot, you may need to offer the chicks fluid. On arrival my chicks usually have their food dipped in full cream natural yogurt – warmed – a few times, then food is dipped either in the Wombaroo First Aid for Birds or plain water.
Fledglings can usually be left alone but if a fledgling is injured or has been attacked or appears to be orphaned or separated from their parents, people should call the RSPCA for help. We advise never to try to return a bird to the nest as this may disturb the other young birds and may be illegal.
If you see a baby magpie sitting on your lawn don't rush out and grab it. Keep pets and people away and watch carefully to see if parents are in attendance. If the parents are attending to it and the chick is in no immediate danger, it should be left with its parents. For more information please read our birds page.
feeding the young – once hatched, the young are fed in the nest for about 4 weeks.
It is normal for fledgling magpies to fall out of the nest and spend a couple of days on the ground. The parents continue feeding them whilst they master the tricky art of flying.
A fledgling is a young bird that is starting to leave the nest but does not yet have the strength to sustain flight. These birds can stay on the ground for up to a couple of weeks, flapping their wings to grow strong enough to fly.
Raw meat, cheese and bread off the menu
Brisbane bird and exotic animal vet Deborah Monks said raw meat and mince, although popular, did the most damage to magpie health. "I wouldn't recommend raw mince on its own because it doesn't have enough calcium in it," she said.
Bread does not contain the necessary protein and fat birds need from their diet, and so it can act as an empty filler. Although bread isn't harmful to birds, try not to offer it in large quantities, since its nutritional value is relatively low.
Avoid: Feeding Magpies and other wild birds, as they are very good at finding their own food and can become sick if they eat old seed or processed foods like bread. Riding your bike near a nesting Magpie as they are more likely to swoop bike riders than people walking.
While it may be tempting to feed magpies your kitchen scraps, it's best to stick to their natural diet. This includes insects, worms and bugs. You can either source these from your garden, or purchase them from your local pet store.
“The main things people will feed them is mince or dog kibble but both are not good for magpies. Mince is too high in different nutrient levels - often too much fat – as in the wild, they are feeding on leaner foods.”
"If you have to feed them, the best things are dry and wet cat and dog food." Nature provides the best food source of course, but our love of green pastures and manicured lawns has proven to be a win for the birds.
A baby magpie is called a chick.
green, white, red, orange/yellow. Note: When feeding stone fruits or fruits with seeds such as Apples, Plums and Grapes - seeds must be removed! While fruit and vegetable are fantastic for your bird, they do not serve as a complete diet and should be supplemented with other dry foods such as seeds, nuts and pellets.
Keep the baby bird in a warm, quiet, and dark place. You can put one end of the container on a heating pad set on lowest setting. If a heating pad is unavailable, use a warm, not hot, rice heat pack placed inside the container next to the bird. Do not give the baby bird any food or water.
Baby magpies leave the nest before their tail feathers have grown. They live on the ground and are fed and protected (often by swooping) by the parents during the day and are hidden in undergrowth overnight.
Once the eggs hatch the young remain in the nest for about 4 weeks whilst being fed by the mother. During this time the nest is defended by the male. The family group will help protect and educate the young with the father teaching them foraging skills.
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.
Baby magpies leave the nest before their tail feathers have grown. They live on the ground and are fed and protected (often by swooping) by the parents during the day and are hidden in undergrowth overnight. Members of the public sometimes confuse this act of nature with magpie babies being deserted or in distress.
Taking a piece of mince or taking a wide berth around the magpies nest may eventually convince the nervous magpie that he does not need to deter this individual anymore because she or he poses little or no risk, and who knows, may even become a friend in future.
Do magpies nest in the same place every year? Both Black-billed and Eurasian magpies often reuse nests, or nest in the same territory. Some 30% to 40% of magpie nests in the USA are reused and upgraded. In Europe, Eurasian magpies either return to the same territory to nest or reuse last year's nest.