Did I save Him...

[InaGlo]

Its a lousy capture I know but, yesterday afternoon I stepped out my front door to find a Magpie ripping the throat out of its father. This little chap lay on the drive nearby, while the mother was going ballastic in a near by tree.
I managed to find the nest in my neighbours side of the shrubbery so I climbed up & I put the baby back.
Does anyone know anything about birds?... will she still feed it? can it survive?
Im on Magpie watch now as its been back again this morning. I knew they were destrustive but I was shocked to see it kill a fully grown blackbird!

 

[CT]

I hate magpies with a vengeance. Watching the slaughter outside our window every spring makes me wish I still had my guns.

As soon as the young are old enough to start crying for food the position of the nest is given away to the maggies and the slaughter is inevitable. Sometimes the parents will tend to and feed a young one which has fallen out of the nest. Usually they'll find ground cover to hide in, but of course then there's the ground predators and cats to contend with.

You sound like my missus, she's always picking birds up and putting them back in the nest. You've given that bird it's best chance, but it's down to Mother Nature when all's said and done, and there are those who say we shouldn't interfere anyway.

Since the demise of the gamekeeper maggies are no longer controlled like they used to be and they seem to be spreading at an alarming rate, to the detriment of the songbird population.

 

[InaGlo]

Thanx CT, I hate Magpies too!
Ive watched them bullying the other birds in my garden & I knew they were destructive but, I didnt know they actually attacked other birds, doh!
Ill keep my eyes open, though as you say... down to mother nature now!

 

[CT]

Often the maggies destroy /eat the eggs long before they get a chance to hatch.
Usually, the young are just slaughtered and not even eaten, but what looks like wanton slaughter to us is just the maggies obeying a basic instinct and reducing the food competition in the area.

Doesn't make it any more pleasant to watch though, like the crows I saw mobbing and killing a load of young ducklings on the river at Lichfield a couple of years ago.