Hello from UK - Strange Magpie Behaviour (1 Viewer)

[ClareBear]

I have a question. Yesterday morning at around 5am, I was woken up by the very loud sound of birds 'shouting'. It was so loud I went to my back window to see what was going on. I have quite a small garden with 3 trees in it. There were around 20 magpies all sitting on the garden fence and the trees all had around 20 to 30 magpies in them, all shouting very loudly. I very quietly went outside to see what was the cause and in the middle of my lawn there were 5 cats, all looking extremely scared. It was extraordinary, I have never seen so many magpies and the noise was incredible. To begin with I thought that maybe the cats were going to go for the birds, but actually I think that the birds may have gone for the cats. It worried me, so I clapped my hands and the birds began to fly away, the cats also ran away.
Does anyone have an explanation?

 

[Fritz73]

Hola ClareBear! A warm welcome to Birdforum from all the staff and moderators

 

[Chris G6 UXU]

Hello and welcome to the forum, enjoy and all the best.

 

[Lisa W]

Hi, welcome to the forum. I think you will find us a friendly and helpful group. I can’t answer your question so I’m going to move this to the birds and birding forum to see if any others might be able to answer it.

 

[Kits]

Welcome to Birdforum. I hope you enjoy your visits.

It sounds interesting behaviour, but I’m sorry I can’t help.

 

[delia todd]

LOL Clare what an extraordinary happening you observed.

I look forward to hearing more about what you see when out and about, as I'm sure you will enjoy it here.

 

[ClareBear]

Hi, welcome to the forum. I think you will find us a friendly and helpful group. I can’t answer your question so I’m going to move this to the birds and birding forum to see if any others might be able to answer it.

Thank you

 

[VonMaunder]

I'd say the Magpies are attempting to show us how it's done.

 

[foresttwitcher]

Many species will mob predators to put them off hunting - the predator will realise its presence has been detected. Magpies are particularly notable when doing this as they are relatively large, gregarious and noisy.