I'm back with another bird-feeding video, this time starring an inquisitive Australian magpie. Unlike their Eurasian counterparts, which are corvids (birds like crows and ravens), Australian magpies are passerine birds (perching birds, or songbirds). They also have a reputation as one of the most feared birds in Australia, due to a tiny fraction getting territorial around mating season and dive-bombing people traveling past their nests. (Especially bikers, for some reason; if you see an Australian biker with zip-ties or pipe-cleaners poking out of their helmet, that's an anti-magpie strategy.)
I've never had a magpie swoop me (just noisy miners), but they're undoubtedly quite confident birds that will often betray no concern as you walk by mere feet away. I've seen them come over to almost within arm's reach when I've offered food. They've also got some amazing vocalizations; my favorite (and their most famous) is a sort of warbling call with some fascinating harmonics, though apparently they can also imitate dozens of other bird species and even natural sounds or human speech!
For the video below, I found a magpie outside and put out a cluster of seeds for it, then set up my camera a few feet away on a short tripod to get a ground-level view. (Magpies spend quite a lot of time walking around on the ground looking for food.) I took a seat just behind the camera, so I was quite surprised when, after about a minutes of pecking at the seeds, the magpie came over and starting checking out the camera! It was pretty neat, and I got some great footage out of it.
Despite their fearsome reputation and visage, magpies can be surprisingly playful. I've seen one rolling over on its back in the grass (and heard of such behavior from other people), and apparently they've been seen doing things like having one magpie hang on to a hanging towel upside down, and get swung back and forth by other individuals. Pretty fun-loving birds, all things considered! A hui hou!
Edit (2/16/21): I've just come across the following video of Australian magpies playing (from the YouTube channel "The Magpie Whisperer"), and had to share—it's really funny to watch them doing summersaults and just clearly having a grand old time. You can also hear some of their wonderful warbling song.
And here's another clip of some juvenile magpies hanging upside from towels on the line. Such funny birds!
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