magpie!bird of prey? (2 Viewers)

[mike from ebbw]

i have seen them clean out a finches nest of chicks but on our local sightings page a well known contributor witnessed a magpie come down in the garden and catch a blue tit!it killed the tit and when the observer went into the garden they found the body but no head.has anyone else heard of anything like this?

 

[Mabel]

Indeed, Magpies do this. So do all crows. Have witnessed Jackdaws steal a Blackbird chick kill from Magpies. The parents were then attacked as they attempted to distract the crows. All Crows seem to do this. If it is suitably smaller, or weaker, or not quick enough, it's fair game. Like everything, I suppose...

 

[alan_rymer]

Indeed, Magpies do this. So do all crows. Have witnessed Jackdaws steal a Blackbird chick kill from Magpies. The parents were then attacked as they attempted to distract the crows. All Crows seem to do this. If it is suitably smaller, or weaker, or not quick enough, it's fair game. Like everything, I suppose...

Not only Corvids!.
I saw a Moorhen kill a young Reed Bunting that didn't manage it completely out of a reedbed on its first flight and landed in shallow water.

 

[mattie]

I ve just been reading about water rails killing and eating smaller birds so maybe its more common than we think.

 

[luke]

hi mike,
a mate of mine remembers seeing a jackdaw once kill a robin by headbutting it?? killed it but didn't do anything with.

 

[Mary Evelyn]

Hi Mike,

Quite a few years ago we found 3 or 4 headless young blackbirds in different parts of our garden when we arrived home from work.Although we were told that the local cats were having a great time that day, we were later told it was a Magpie and i do think that was probably the case.I have seen many kills from cats and this would have been unusual for them.

 

[talon_dfa]

Add other jays (also corvids) to the list of nest predators and squirrels (esp red squirrels) in the US...

 

[pe'rigin]

On the other side of the coin, we have a female Sparrowhawk which has a handy knack of taking just fledged Magpies from a regularly nest in our Hawthorn bush. So we can't complain too much.

 

[brianfm]

hi mike,
a mate of mine remembers seeing a jackdaw once kill a robin by headbutting it?? killed it but didn't do anything with.

I watched a C. Crow kill a Redshank which flew into its flight path. Just brought it down into a field and left it.

 

[colonelboris]

There was a post on BF a few months back about someone seeing a robin giving a crow some hassle. The crow then turned round and broke the robins neck and thought 'hey! That's dead, so I can eat it!'

 

[Collster]

I once saw a crow catch a recently fledged blackbird in mid air, it flew off with it so dont know outcome, can guess though

 

[ste-dee]

Believe it or not,i watched a magpie chasing a cat,i could not believe what a was seeing.

 

[John P]

We have three large trees in close proximity to our garden, every year is a battle between crows and magpies as to which bird will nest in which tree, but I can guarantee that whatever the outcome the crows will attempt to eat the young magpies and the magpies will attempt to eat the young crows and they will both eat the young pigeons who will nest in the third tree.

The magpies are also very partial to young blackbirds. I've had to draw the line at the crows eating my fish though and have taken steps to prevent that.

 

[David FG]

Believe it or not,i watched a magpie chasing a cat,i could not believe what a was seeing.

I saw a Herring Gull knock my cat off a roof (it was only a one-story roof of an outbuilding so no damage was done to her.)

 

[mike from ebbw]

i seen a cat on the apex of the roof next door in the summer.i wondered "what the hell is he doing up there".then i realized,as the swifts that were nesting under the fascia boards were bringing food back to their young,the cat was reaching down to try and catch them as they landed on the pebbledashed wall.failed miserably though,his "arms" were too short.

 

[sparrie]

I,ve seen two carrion crows attacking a very small baby rabbit. I got there within a minute and they had mananged to get the guts out. I have also seen a rook landing on a feeding pigeon and pecking it to death. The most upsetting was watching a herring gull on my neighbours roof shaking a newly fledged blackbird to death and swallowing it whole. This took about two minutes to go down.

Gary

 

[OwlTalon]

I saw a raven attack a young ground squirrel, repeatedly pummeling it on the head. The mother squirrel fought the raven and managed to make it drop the baby. I also heard a story where a kestrel was found decapitated at the base of a raven's nest after it had been seen eyeing the ravens' fledglings.

 

[jason stannage]

a freinds mother saw up to 6 magpies attacking a cat in a local park she then went to the shops on her return she saw the cat had not moved it was dead its left eye was gone she swears this story is true. one for the x files i think

 

[nikovich]

I took a walk along our riverbank here in Canada and was attacked by a Magpie , probably for walking too close to it's nest. It chased me a good few yards !

Also , about a month ago , I witnessed a Magpie snatch a full grown House Sparrow in our backyard , pummel it, try to drown it in our birdbath ( which was frozen at the time ! ) , then flew off to a tree to eat it !

 

[shark attack]

Seen seagulls round here attack and kill a pigeon.

An old lady put the pigeon in the waste bin which made the gull go crazy i take it would have been eaten up immediately.

Also seen seagulls attacking another seagull which had a broken wing didn't really see the outcome of that one though.