May I start this thread with, I know nothing about birds.

[Jeza]

I live in a semi rural area. Houses and road at the front, fields at the back. We see sparrows, starlings, green finch, gold finch, robins and blackbirds. Many more but I don't know their names. This year the only birds are magpies. I know they are predatory birds. Have they eaten, frighten the other birds away, or is there another explanation. Every year we have had sparrows and blackbirds nesting, but not this year.

[doctordb]

Mike, when you say the magpies were trying to help their friend, were they ringing for an ambulance or applying first aid?

[mike11111]

No, they were killing it because, as I assume, it had invaded their territory.

[boxtops]

Magpies are beautiful, but they kill, they raid nests, and yes they eat meat. We have a family of magpies in trees near us. We can't say if it's them keeping birds away, because with 6 cats between 2 houses, no sensible bird hangs around long anyway. What we don't see this year is starlings - but go a few miles away and the phone lines are heaving with them. I wonder why?

[NoMercy]

I had a sparrow hawk come and snatch one of my little birds the other day. :(

[jomifl]

Mike, Since magpies have not recieved the word of god they cannot be 'evil' even if they are occasionaly little sods. You on the other hand shouldn't rush to judgement of god's creation..though it doesn't stop you.

[rowanwitch]

best thing is to provide an easy food source for the magpies like all the crow family they will take the easy option every time. dog food is good but for amusement value dry dog food is best if you give then a deep dish of water thy will dunk it before eating. The song birds are a separate issue and many finches especially are dying due to a virus that is spread by dirty feeders. If you have feeders remeber to tke them down and empty them and wash them really well in hot water and detergent every three weeks.

Other are simply suffering a drop in numbers due in part to the series of wet summers , and possibly local cat predation although the effects of this were proved to be less serious than thought a few years ago. the other thing is many are moving in to urban areas as gardens can provide better habitat than areas of heavily farmed land. Hope this helps.. love to your OH BTW he is missed

[chaptazbru]

miss meg - why do you have mice and rats running all over your house ???