what do magpies like to eat appart from baby birds

[chris59]

I get a few magpies visiting my garden, and I find them great fun to watch. But as the time is getting closer for eggs to be laid, I would love to know if there is a food that I could put out for the magpies, that might get them to leave the baby birds alone. I know they have to eat , but if could find a food that they really love, the smaller birds may get a bit of relief.

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by chris59

I get a few magpies visiting my garden, and I find them great fun to watch. But as the time is getting closer for eggs to be laid, I would love to know if there is a food that I could put out for the magpies, that might get them to leave the baby birds alone. I know they have to eat , but if could find a food that they really love, the smaller birds may get a bit of relief.

fish and chips,bread,rice... anything we eat, they are scavengers.

[LoveT]

Peanuts - our local magpies eat the ones I put out for the tits (still enough for everyone tho !

I wouldn't put peanuts out in the summer tho - baby birds (tits etc.) can choke on 'em .

Thea

[Adam Cheeseman]

As opportunistic scavengers they will eat anthing once they have discovered it's edible. Nestlings and fledglings are just a small percentage of their diet over the course of a year and they take them because they are readily available if they can find them.

Cheers,

Adam

[mrs fish]

They love cat or dog food, I had a magpie for a few weeks and that is what I fed it, I also put some out when it is nesting time hoping that will deter them from taking new chicks

[aeshna5]

Yes anything that's edible, plant or animal from grains to tadpoles to carrion to earthworms, etc.

[Elizabeth B]

Originally Posted by chris59

I get a few magpies visiting my garden, and I find them great fun to watch. But as the time is getting closer for eggs to be laid, I would love to know if there is a food that I could put out for the magpies, that might get them to leave the baby birds alone. I know they have to eat , but if could find a food that they really love, the smaller birds may get a bit of relief.

According to my Birdguides CDrom a magpie's diet consists of - A wide variety of worms, insects, eggs, frogs, snails, fruits and young birds.

I doubt if there is anything you can do to get them to leave baby birds alone - if you put out extra food for them, I would think you'll just end up with even more magpies in your garden!

[dmclean2]

We have a couple that come to our garden and they come up to-wards the house on the top of the fence then they drop down into our neighbours to pinch the cat food off the table, poor likle pusseys, clever magpies,

Duncan

[hobble]

Our funny magpie likes any thing we leave out, and comes into the porch to pinch the cat food.

[witham]

we have alot of trees both in the garden and in the nearby area so have lots of nesting birds, we have a chicken feeder in the 'hen pen' with mixed corn/layers pelletts in it, and other assorted animal and bird feeders, there is always food out that the Magpies could take, yet in the nesting season we regularly hear the panic calls from the trees of the parent birds trying to attract the Magpies to draw them away from their nest, then the horrible squawking of the little birds as they are being ripped apart and the chuckling of the Magpies as if either enjoying themselves or calling others to the 'takeaway'. They seem to 'work' the area then move on the next even though there is a ready food supply in the garden so I don't think you can keep them away from the baby birds.