This is of course right....but they are quite relentless predators and their numbers seem to have exploded in the last 20 years, in these parts at least....and you have to wonder if the balance is tipping the wrong way. Ultimately if a species over predates its food source,, its numbers will fall as the food source falls.....its quite natural....but in the short term they possibly can devastate local nests.
I'm 60, and via my dads love of the countryside, ive always loved birdlife in particular. Yet, i NEVER saw a magpie until maybe 30 years ago. The first ones i saw were wonderful to see, just for their apparent rarity (ive lived as a kid in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire...but never saw them). Now, you can't drive 1/2 mile without seeing a pair or two on the roadside and now you even hear them in among the housing estates.
They're quite horribly intelligent, when you see them perched high in trees, they're watching where birds are nesting and are intelligent enough to leave alone until the eggs have hatched...only then they predate the nests (as told by a TV programme some time ago)
I can't say i love em....