magpies

There is a pot in my garden with eggshells that I crush to use against slugs. This morning a magpie took one of them away with her...it was amazing to watch. What will it use it for?

Now I took a fancy for these amazing looking birds and I would like to put some food out there to attract them. What do you suggest (also: I wouldn't want to attract mice though!)?

 

I have a few magpies that visit but only one takes the bread and dips it in the pond before it eats it

 

@miraflores the Magpie might be in need of calcium which is needed for egg shell formation so that might be why it has taken it or it is the fact that they like to collect things although it is often said they prefer things that are bright and shiny

 

Unfortunately, the favourite food of Magpies right now is young birds!!

 

I have a pair of resident Magpies in my garden. They love the kitten biscuits and wet cat food I feed to the hedgehogs. Its gone in seconds. They will also eat dried or live mealworms, granulated peanuts and suet pellets. I've also seen them take chunks of scones, grated cheddar cheese and fresh or dried fruit. The crows and blackbirds also eat all of the above.

 

Magpies have been seen mourning their dead by placing objects round the body

 

They also pair for life.

 

I hate magpies, would sooner see less of them and get the song birds back that they feast on

 

I don't like magpies as a rule, as they eat the eggs and young of other birds. We have one that visits us that cannot put any weight on one leg, I feel sorry for it, but it does come for a feed, it has mixed seed and any old multigrain brown bread.

Rusty

 

Magpies like Rats get a lot of bad press. Its not their fault they were born Maggies or that they do things we don't like in order to survive. I don't know if it makes a difference to the Maggies but I do wonder if supplying them with meat based, high protein foods such as the cat food makes them less inclined to take baby birds/eggs. The two I have here seem to spend a lot of time scoffing the biscuits and wet food.

 

Magpies and herring gulls are in abundance in the car park near to where I work: they love McDonalds and are in contest to see who can open screwed up packages to get to the food which humans have thrown out of their car windows.

 

Even the beautiful Great Spotted Woodpecker will hammer its way into nest boxes of Blue Tits etc to consume eggs and chicks in the spring to feed their own young