1. Magpie numbers in Britain and Ireland have quadrupled in the last 35 years.
2. The increase has been particularly noticeable in suburban areas.
3. During the winter the magpie’s diet is largely vegetarian, and in the summer predominately ground invertebrates. Only during the spring, when feeding its young, does it become a major predator, raiding the nests of songbirds for eggs and young.
4. Opinions differ widely on the impact of magpies on nesting birds. Most studies suggest that their impact is minimal, but where magpies have been removed, breeding success of songbirds has improved.
5. One of the explanations for the magpie’s booming population is thought to be the amount of carrion from road kills available today, providing a year-round food source.
6. Magpies can be caught legally in Larsen traps, a live-capture trap that uses a decoy bird to lure others into the trap. Many thousands are caught and killed in this way every year.
7. A male magpie, attracted to a female decoy, will attempt to court and mate with her unless his mate accompanies him, in which case their joint response is aggressive.
8. Magpies have always been surrounded by superstition, and there are many versions of the poem that begins:
One for sorrow, two for joy…
9. There was an old rural tradition of raising one’s hat to a magpie; now few people wear hats, the tradition has largely died out.
10. A magpie looks much bigger than it is: the tail makes up half the bird’s length. Its average weight is only about half that of a wood pigeon’s.
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