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For non-Aussies: This is talking about the Australian Magpie, which is distinct from other international birds. They have some beautiful calls/songs, and are n

• bradrn 5y ago
  Australian magpies truly are amazing birds. I recall once seeing two young magpies lying on their side and play-wrestling. [Image: https://imgur.com/CxRsLE3 https://imgur.com/CxRsLE3] When one got tired, the other kept following it around — it obviously wanted to keep on playing. And when I have lunch outside, I regularly have magpies trying to creep up on me to steal my food, though they haven’t yet figured out that it doesn’t work when I’m looking straight them. (Which takes some courage; having a magpie look down its beak at you is a fairly unnerving experience.) I am not surprised at all to hear that they can work together to remove a mere backpack.
  • mr_toad 5y ago
    > they haven’t yet figured out that it doesn’t work when I’m looking straight them. They don’t have forward facing eyes, so they might not understand that a human has to turn its head to see something.
    • bradrn 5y ago
      > … they might not understand that a human has to turn its head to see something. I’m pretty sure they understand this well — it’s common knowledge that a swooping magpie will stop attacking if you stare straight at it. (Of course, ‘common knowledge’ isn’t necessarily correct, but a quick search seems to confirm this case.)
• waste_monk 5y ago
  > and will swoop/attack any intruders during mating season This makes it sound like they're unreasonable or aggressive, which is very much not the case. They're just defending their nests from perceived threats. >They also recognise individual humans - which can be good or bad depending on your relationship with them This also means that if you're a regular in the area, you will have a reputation with them and (assuming you don't go out of your way to harass them and ruin said reputation) they will not bother to swoop. When I was a boy I spent a lot of time playing in a park near my house which had a number of magpie families, and was not swooped or threatened once.
  • paranoidrobot 5y ago
    > This makes it sound like they're unreasonable or aggressive, which is very much not the case. That's a judgement/point of view call. Having been swooped and attacked just for trying to walk down my driveway it's definitely easy to call it unreasonable and aggressive. > you will have a reputation with them and (assuming you don't go out of your way to harass them and ruin said reputation) they will not bother to swoop Maybe true in some rare cases, but I've not heard of that happening frequently without some kind of active relationship (such as through feeding). The magpies I lived near as a kid never got used to humans, and never let me pass without swooping.
• potatochup 5y ago
  As a kiwi, I find their calls to be ugly sounding, but it's highly likely I'm biased against imported species :) I trap and kill all the imported mamallian pests I cone across (mice, rats, possums), but have left the magpies alone for now, although they do complete with native species and are too big to be hunted by local hawks/falcons/etc