Cheeky blinkin Magpies

[Beebo]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-48050361

Poor Chris Packham. There are some weird people in this world.

 

[colly]

We get all sorts in our garden, and despite squabbles between pidgeons it never seems to decend into warfare. We get a few rats at the bottom of the garden and they are surly buggers, chasing off squirrels and birds but when a crow lands the rats give it a wide berth.
We get red kites overhead a lot and crows will harry them and mob them until they move on.
Herons, now I do chase them off if I see them. I really don't mind them but they eat the fish in the pond. ( ok well they take the fish from the pond and then eat them )

 

[nickyboy]

I'm very dubious, nay, scathing on this labelling of a species as bad "they kill songbirds" and hence "bad". There have always been magpies and songbirds and each has to make a living. Magpies doubtless take chicks of other birds, but songbirds eat worms etc.There is a balance and all seem to do OK, Environmental change is what really hurts species not the ongoing cycle of predator and prey

Pigeons are "bad" because they are sucessfull yet doves are "good" and represent peace.

OK I don't want rats in the house but outdoor rats -live and let live.

We have a cat and she happily hunts birds and rodents as its her nature, and to be fair she eats them mostly, but the garden is full of birds and I have yet to hear of a shortage of rats, however many dead ones she brings in

Back on topic in another life our timid scardey cat maine coon was in the garden growling one day with the other 3 cats looking on from a distance. He proudly munched his way through a whole magpie, bones, feathers, the lot, leaving only a pair of feet. His bigger stronger bolder brother caught nowt as he had the stealth of a herd of hippos.

Agree with most of this except cats. Cats predate birds and small mammals and are present at an average density about 7x that which could naturally be supported

Gardens are very dangerous places for birds, much more so than the local woods and hedgerows.

 

[Profpointy]

Agree with most of this except cats. Cats predate birds and small mammals and are present at an average density about 7x that which could naturally be supported

Gardens are very dangerous places for birds, much more so than the local woods and hedgerows.

Yebutt our garden is full of birds, despite our own cat, and others local cats vying for mousing / birding territory. Pigeons are arguably the easiest birds for her to catch, at least by the evidence, and yet they are even considered a pest in certain eyes. She catches far more rats than songbirds. I'm not trying to justify being a cat owner here, but I would need a lot of convincing that the claim stands up. I strongly suspect that bird or rodent population is limited by territory and food (plentiful in town after all) far more than by cat or magpie predation.