Magpies collect shiny objects for display in an attempt to attract a mate. The bird displaying the most objects of highest quality will get the best mate.
Magpies are very curious, just like their relatives, the jays and crows. They may sometimes pick up shiny things, but they don't show any preference for shiny over dull. A magpie's more likely to grab your sandwich than your silver.
Magpies don't like shiny things, in fact they fear them | SBS News.
One of the first creatures that might come to mind when you think of animal collectors are magpies, with their reputation for stealing jewellery and trinkets. However, magpies are actually very shy and frightened of new (and shiny) things. Their secluded, thorny nests are practical and minimal, with no bling in sight.
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.
Some Magpie meaning is dualistic; on the one hand, Magpie brings luck, love, and lasting prosperity. On the other, the Bird's appearance might mean deception and fraud. Here, Magpie reminds you that everything in life has two sides, and sometimes what you see depends on where you look!
Magpies are 'like dogs'
"Even during the breeding season you can come close to them because they know you'll do no harm." On the other hand, if you are mean to a magpie it will bear a grudge for a long time.
For most of the year, Magpies are friendly and sociable, and may even venture into your house to beg for food. But for four to six weeks a year during August to September, the male Magpie will defend his home vigorously. For the rest of the year, people are completely safe from swooping Magpies!
When magpies swoop, they beat their wings, clack their beaks and occasionally peck or scratch. Accidents can occur because people, particularly children, panic. Remember, magpies are simply trying to protect their territory. Stay calm, protect your face and walk away quickly.
Magpies feel grief and even hold funeral-type gatherings for their fallen friends and lay grass "wreaths" beside their bodies, an animal behaviour expert has claimed. Dr Bekoff, of the University of Colorado, said these rituals prove that magpies, usually seen as an aggressive predator, also have a compassionate side.
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.
Myth 2: Magpies target certain colours
None of the research about magpies to date has found that magpies target specific colours, such as orange, yellow or purple. Instead, it is widely believed that they swoop purely to protect their young.
What Is A Group of Magpies Called? There are many collective nouns for magpies, but perhaps the most common names for a group of magpies are a conventicle, gulp, mischief, tidings or tribe of magpies[i].
PROFESSOR Jane Hughes has discovered the unsavoury truth about sex among magpies: after two decades of research into the bird's behaviour, she says it is the female who cheats on her partner.
Use signs to warn others of the location of nests and defence zones, particularly in areas used by children and the elderly. Waving sticks or umbrellas in the air or attaching a brightly coloured flag on a long pole to your bicycle can stop magpies from swooping.
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.
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.
“We know that magpie's almost never swoop someone who feeds them. Whether you agree with feeding wild birds or not but the fact is the people who feed people in their backward never get swooped by magpie's or it's extremely rare.”
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.
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.
Should we even feed magpies at all? Murdoch University's Healthy Wildlife, Healthy Lives website discourages feeding, saying it leads to "nutritional imbalances, increase the risk of disease, and lead to a disruption in natural animal behaviour".
Males are typically larger than females and have longer beaks, while females are usually smaller with shorter beaks. The physical traits that allow for identification of the gender of adult White-backed magpies are located on their napes and mantles which are key areas to observe in the White-backed magpie.
Natural predators of magpies include various species of monitor lizard and the barking owl. Birds are often killed on roads or electrocuted by powerlines, or poisoned after killing and eating house sparrows or mice, rats or rabbits targeted with baiting. The Australian raven may take nestlings left unattended.
Magpies have several predators including domestic cats, dogs, foxes, and owls. Also, they can have eggs as well as chicks stolen out of their nest by raccoons, hawks, weasels, and mink.