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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 htt
by 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.)