Importantly, it was the bird (not hand-raised but a free-living adult female) that had begun to take the initiative and had chosen to socially interact and such behaviour, as research has shown particularly in primates, is affiliative and part of the basis of social bonds and friendships. She also wanted to play with me and found my shoelaces particularly attractive, pulling them and then running away a little only to return for another go. The bird was curious about everything I did. I had to get up to take a phone call and when I returned, the magpie had taken up a position at my keyboard, pecked the keys gently and then looked at the “results” on screen. She watched me type on the keyboard and even looked at the screen. On one extraordinary occasion, an adult female magpie gingerly entered my house on foot, and hopped over to my desk where I was sitting. The curious magpie following the author’s movements in her home (Photo by G.Kaplan no reuse) One magpie always perched on my kitchen window sill, looking in and watching my every move. For example, magpies have helped me garden by walking in parallel to my weeding activity and displacing soil as I did. In rare cases, they may even join in human activity. They may allow their chicks to play near people, not fly away when a resident human is approaching, and actually approach or roost near a human. When magpies have formed an attachment they will often show their trust, for example, by formally introducing their offspring. The difference between simply not swooping someone and a real friendship manifests in several ways. There is a lot at stake with every magpie clutch.īird-brained and brilliant: Australia's avians are smarter than you think Carrick in the 1970s, even if they breed successfully every single year, they may successfully raise only seven to eleven chicks to adulthood and breeding in a lifetime. And based on extensive magpie population research conducted by R. In fact, only about 14% of adult magpies ever succeed in breeding. Most magpies will not secure a territory – let alone breed – until they are at least five years old. Properties suitable for magpies are hard to come by and the competition is fierce. Magpies that actively form friendships with people make this investment (from their point of view) for good reason. They will remember someone who was good to them equally, they remember negative encounters.
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They can learn which nearby humans do not constitute a risk. This bond can extend to trusting certain people around their offspring.Ī key reason why friendships with magpies are possible is that we now know that magpies are able to recognise and remember individual human faces for many years. And since magpies can live between 25 and 30 years and are territorial, they can develop lifelong friendships with humans. Over 80% of all successfully breeding magpies live near human houses, which means the vast majority of people, in fact, never get swooped. When magpies are permanently ensconced on human property, they are also far less likely to swoop the people who live there.
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However, there is evidence that, remarkably, free-living magpies can forge lasting relationships with people, even without depending on us for food or shelter.
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Of course, many bird species may readily come to a feeding table and become tame enough to take food from our hand, but this isn’t really “friendship”. They like to stick together with family and mates, in the good Australian way. In fact, Australia is thought to be a hotspot for cooperative behaviour in birds worldwide. Ravens and magpies are known to form powerful allegiances among themselves. Can one form a friendship with a magpie – even when adult males are protecting their nests during the swooping season? The short answer is: “Yes, one can” – although science has just begun to provide feasible explanations for friendship in animals, let alone for cross-species friendships between humans and wild birds.