Magpies attack young blackbird

The problem is - we all like to interfere to a certain extent when it comes to cute cuddly wildlife being 'harmed' as we see it, just as @Liriodendron describes. Nature is tough, and we end up with lots of problems when we start removing predators completely.
Deer and wolves is the classic example. Deer now have no natural predators, and without careful culling, there simply isn't enough territory to sustain them all if they breed well.

I was fascinated the other day coming back from my walk - a group of crows creating a 'right stooshie' with another one just at the end of my garden. He/she must have been misbehaving - about 4 of them had that one pinned to the ground and were giving it a right good seeing to. That's how it is in nature. Harsh.

 

We all like to hear the first cuckoo and are sad they appear to be declining in numbers.
That one certainly has some bad habits.

 

I hear you all. I realise that magpies have to eat too, but find it distressing seeing it happen to a defenceless chick. I like the blackbirds.
And yes, I do eat meat. At our previous house we had magpies, as well as other birds, but never saw one type of bird attack another.
It was the presence of cats that was the issue.

 

A few years ago I saw a magpie arrive in the garden with a mistle thrush chick pursued by the parent birds. I didn't intervene that time as the chick was clearly dead. A few weeks later a greater spotted woodpecker flew into our conservatory window and was pounced upon by a nearby magpie. That time I did go and chase it off and the woodpecker flew off but whether it was injured or not I don't know.

This year and for the last couple of years the boot has been on the other foot though. We have magpies nesting in a pine tree near the house and their chicks are being attacked by crows. OH did go out to chase them off a chick which they were harassing but I later found the remains so I assume the crows returned.

In general I try not to interfer - they all have to do whatever is necessary to try to survive.

 

“Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite ‘em,
And little fleas have smaller fleas … and so on … ad infinitum.”

Everything is preyed upon by something … it’s how Nature works.

 

They aren't evil and they aren't bullies. It's nature, red in tooth and claw. We just aren't used to seeing it that close up.

 

We watch programmes showing lions hunting and killing zebra or wildebeest or whatever and dragging the carcass back to their cubs. We watch amazed at programmes showing a tiny weasel killing a young rabbit to feed its young … why are some folk so upset when birds do the same? They have to live too.

 

Actually as I've got older I've stopped watching wildlife programmes, I find them very repetitive and I dont really want to sit and watch carnage.
I know it happens and that is enough for me, I dont consider watching five lions dragging down a wildebeast to be enlightening or entertainment.

 

That may be so, @Dovefromabove , but not right outside my conservatory.
Out of interest, the same would apply to any animal or bird killing, or trying to kill, any living creature right outside, that they are likely to leave part of, that I will have to clear up.
That would include something trying to harm or kill a magpie!!

 

Are they in our space … or are we in theirs?

 

Well, it's my garden, but I'll admit I haven't yet put up the signs to tell them!!

 

Crows indeed attack Magpies nests and try to steal their nest and eggs. We had to bear* that noise for two (?) weeks daily from sunrise to sunset 2 years ago.

* We as well as our neighbour are WFH and Teams meetings with this noise in the background are no fun.

 

We get crows and magpies every year mobbing each other and having regular squabbles, because they use the Scots pines just along from us for nesting. The problem we have this year is that a resident had one of those chopped down [no idea why] so the magpies have settled on our conifers at the back end of the garden. That's where the crows were having a rammy the other day too.
I wish they'd travelled another 100 yards and used one of the 4 Scots pines in another resident's front garden instead! They don't seem to be very efficient at nest building either, so I don't know if they've even got anything in there. They look very juvenile, so probably last year's youngsters.
I'd rather have the incompetent woodies having a go, and failing, at making a nest in there.
They're both efficient at making large amounts of mess on the cars though....

 

Jus

Just a suggestion, either shut the windows or go back to working from the office. Would you also expect your neighbours not to make any noise outside, mowing for example?

 

The young magpies here are a pain in the proverbial - teenage hooligans, looking for trouble while Mum & Dad find them food! The first spring we were here (2020), the magpies fledged during lockdown, and certainly provided entertainment... the builders had stopped work, of course, but left behind a lot of cigarette butts. I'd cleared up as many as I could find, but the sharp-eyed magpie babies liked collecting those which remained, and depositing them in my pots of seedlings, which were hardening off outside. Then they discovered the game of pulling out seedlings and flinging them around, as well as removing plant labels. (I found a label in the gutter last autumn.) This year we appear to have 4 babies, currently pulling up my sugar peas...