Why do Magpies announce their presence? (2 Viewers)

[ChrisKten]

Magpies are regular visitors to my garden, and they always do their machinegun-like call before flying down for food. I don't mean the "caw caw" (wrong description?) alarm call, that's reserved for predators. It's as if the Magpie is letting all the other birds know it's arrived; not that they don't know already.

Crows also do a similar thing, but not Jays. I suppose it could be territorial, but I'm not certain.

So, any thoughts on this behaviour?

 

[ChrisKten]

I guess it's more of a mystery than I thought.|=)|

 

[fugl]

My Western Scrub-jays often call when small groups come for peanuts. Singles & pairs, on the contrary, are generally silent. My take on this (FWIW) is that the silent birds refrain from calling to avoid alerting competitors to the new food source, while the flocks simply call out of excitement. But who knows? Corvids are complicated creatures & the more I see of my scrub-jays the more puzzling I find much of their behavior.

 

[Nature__lover]

I've never really thought about it before but I see what you mean..

maybe it's a simple "I'm here so get out of my way!"

 

[ChrisKten]

My Western Scrub-jays often call when small groups come for peanuts. Singles & pairs, on the contrary, are generally silent. My take on this (FWIW) is that the silent birds refrain from calling to avoid alerting competitors to the new food source, while the flocks simply call out of excitement. But who knows? Corvids are complicated creatures & the more I see of my scrub-jays the more puzzling I find much of their behavior.

Thanks for replying. I think they are smarter than us, so we'll never understand them.|=)|

I mainly see this behaviour with single Magpies, but I suspect there's at least one other Magpie nearby. I have noticed that the Magpie looks round at all of the other birds while doing this call; a bit like it's shouting at them.

 

[KenM]

I guess it's more of a mystery than I thought.|=)|

I've found that Nuthatches (especially when in pairs), and Great Spots....often do the same!...although not every time!

I find this strident 'calling'... quite strange! as it could alert Accipter nisus?

Perhaps they know something...we don't?

 

[ChrisKten]

I've found that Nuthatches (especially when in pairs), and Great Spots....often do the same!...although not every time!

I find this strident 'calling'... quite strange! as it could alert Accipter nisus?

Perhaps they know something...we don't?

It is odd, especially in my garden that has regular Sparrowhawk attacks. It's almost like "Come and get me", which of course the female Sparrowhawks will.

I've also noticed the same call when there's something dead in the garden, but on those occasions there's often more than one Magpie. Also, this insistent calling is often followed by the Magpies eating what was dead.

For instance; the most recent Sparrowhawk attack (couple of days ago) resulted in a dead Pigeon. Some of the Pigeon was left, as the Sparrowhawk had enough (it came back the next day to finish off it's meal, but the Cats had nicked it during the night). An hour or so later a Magpie landed on the fence and started the same insistent machine-gun calling, this time aimed at the Pigeon's remains.

So at a guess, the calling seems like it could be excitement/agitation. Excited at the prospect of an unexpected meal, agitated by the 60+ Pigeons it has to land amongst to get the Monkey Nuts. But who knows.

 

[TheBirdGarden]

Being a corvid its probably something to do with communication, magpies from what I'm told they are also cocky birds so a "come and get me" to a sparrowhawk might no be far from the truth ^^.

I love magpies they are fascinating birds as well as the other corvids. I would like to know why they do this also since I have 3 regulars who come and go in my garden

 

[ChrisKten]

Being a corvid its probably something to do with communication, magpies from what I'm told they are also cocky birds so a "come and get me" to a sparrowhawk might no be far from the truth ^^.

I love magpies they are fascinating birds as well as the other corvids. I would like to know why they do this also since I have 3 regulars who come and go in my garden

Yes, Magpies are great birds, very intelligent and great to observe.

At the risk of dragging my own thread off topic, an example of why you never know what they'll do next:

Last year one of the Magpies was at the bird baths, I seem to remember it was soaking bread before eating it. A Mouse suddenly appeared at the back of the garden, only a few feet from the bird baths. The Magpie dropped the bread, flew down and grabbed the Mouse by the scruff of the neck, and flew off with it. It all happened in an instant, and was a perfect example of why Magpies are called "Opportunistic Predators".|=)|

 

[occasional]

Just a suggestion -they are asking another bird to keep watch whilst they are in a vulnerable position ?

 

[ChrisKten]

Just a suggestion -they are asking another bird to keep watch whilst they are in a vulnerable position ?

Yes, that's quite possible; although I did think that the little "peep peep" contact calls could serve that purpose.

When I get time, I'll have to do a search for any studies. I would imagine that studies must have been done on such intelligent creatures as Corvids, Magpies being probably one of the most intelligent.

The most interesting thing for me, is that so far, it seems nobody really knows. Then again, I've been watching them for hours each day for years, and I don't know either.

 

[fugl]

For a really brainy corvid, see this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/science/01angier.html?_r=1&ref=science

 

[Gaz Shilton]

Reading another thread the other day, they need to learn to keep quiet when the culling starts!!!!!!

 

[jpscloud]

I wondered if it was a sort of territorial thing, i.e. "I've spotted some grub, and it's MINE - stay away!"