Dead Blackbirds Mystery

[Gypop]

Hi, over the past few months we have had an extremely tame male blackbird (no wonder he's tame as he gets fed on demand!) who comes within a couple of feet to feed and even comes as soon as he knows you are outside.

Over the past few weeks his lady friend has been joining him and although not as tame she was also pretty brave!

Sadly after a weekend away we came home to find two dead female blackbirds and we haven't seen the male with his female for a day so can only assume one was his partner.

The mystery is what killed them. Both female birds had their head missing but we very rarely (in fact I've never seen one in the garden) get cats as we have a dog.

I wondered if magpies could have done it as there are a couple of pairs around and they bully eveything in sight, especially the wood pigeons.

Could a magpie kill a blackbird by pulling it's head off and would it eat the head and leave the body?

[thebeard]

i think mammals are generally the ones which rip off heads, weasels or other mustelids

[2dogs2000]

I found a dead juvenile robin on a school playground with its' head missing and I assumed it was a cat as we have a lot of cats around here. Didn't think of a magpie and we have those too. I doubt we have mustelids but I may be wrong.