Have you spotted Magpies in your garden? The tricky black birds have a reputation for bad behaviour, but experts warn garden-owners to avoid this common practice
Known for their tricky intelligence, thieving, and their devouring of the eggs and young of innocent garden birds, magpies have earned themselves a chilling reputation across the UK. In more nightmarish scenarios, they are even known to swoop down on unsuspecting humans when threatened and peck their necks.
This has unsurprisingly led to many viewing them as invasive pests, and many lay out traps and even poison in the hopes of culling their numbers. But is their wicked reputation wholly deserved? Experts warn that, as we come into February, homeowners should hold back on purging magpies from their gardens. This is because their more aggressive behaviour also makes them incredible pest-killers.
With their sharp claws and lightning-fast dive bombing technique, they are adept at scouring disease-ridden rodents like rats and mice – which can otherwise cost upwards of £200 to exterminate. Particularly as we move into February and the temperature gradually becomes warmer, these dangerous pests breed with increased frequency. Bird food supplier GardenBird says: “As an omnivorous, voracious scavenger, the Magpie is firmly within the curious realm of what one could call the canon of contentious garden birds; a marmite, if you like, of love and hate, similar to the Jay, and anything but, for example, the gentle, loveable Long-tailed tit.
“But there are always two sides to the coin: yes, Magpies have been accused of stealing and consuming the eggs of innocent garden birds, but they have also been seen as incredibly adept at warding off similarly dangerous pests.
“Over the past two decades and beyond, magpies have shot up in number across the UK, and are now among the most commonly observed garden birds in the UK. But along with this rapid increase in population has arisen a most abundant form of hatred among people, and this is, apparently, put down mainly to their “cheeky behaviour”. This, however, can’t be the whole truth, and one author, Steve Roud, believes it could be related to the deep superstitions held in traditional British folklore, which links the Magpie to the devil.”
It’s true that in European folklore, magpies have traditionally been associated with magic and the occult. In Scandinavia, it was believed that witches could ride, and even transform into, magpies, while in parts of Scotland it was said that they had the devil’s blood on their tongue.
However, in other parts of the world, like East Asia, they have a completely converse reputation. In China magpies are considered to bring good fortune, while in Korea, they are believed to act as a kind of tooth fairy, with little children tossing their baby teeth on the rooftop in the hopes that the lucky black birds will bring them new ones.