Young Magpie advice needed

[maggie1]

Hi

I've just joined and need some advice please.

I came across a young magpie near my home that had been attacked by 2 adult magpies. It had alot of feathers plucked from the top of its head which was really sore and bleeding. It had managed to hop next to the trunk of a tree but they kept flying down to attack it again. It couldn't fly and was just trying to hop away. I picked it up and have kept it since, about a week now. I noticed that he was able to fly up and down to the perch we had made him so we decided to release him. Everything was going fine, he hopped up a tree, on to our fence and flew off. Within a few seconds the 2 adult magpies came out of nowhere and attacked him again! He managed to fly back into our garden and hid in a corner. So I picked him up and popped him back in the shed where we have been keeping him.

My question is what do I do now? Should I take him somewhere else to release him and hope he's ok? The 2 adult magpies are still hanging round near the house all the time.

Thanks for any advice

[Hedgehoggy]

Hi maggie1, and welcome to WAB.

Your fledgling magpie is still dependent upon its parents for food and can’t safely be released for some time yet. It's been a few years since I've hand-reared a baby magpie so somebody please correct me if I'm wrong. IIRC after fledging the nest, magpies are fed by their parents for a further four weeks or so, until they can properly fly, and will then stay in the safety of their parents’ territory until Sept/Oct. If you release it in another area it would not survive.

Magpies (as with all corvids) are easily tamed/imprinted, rendering them un-releasable back to the wild, so the best course of action you can do for your fledgling magpie now is to pass it on to a wildlife rescue centre for the specialist rehabilitation it will need in order to be successfully released at the end of summer.

This link provides in-depth info and I hope may be of some help to you, particularly the section on 'Release': Hand-rearing Crows, Jay, Magpie etc. (Techniques)

Good luck.

[maggie1]

Thankyou for the advice hedgehoggy, much appreciated. I have taken your advice and contacted a local wildlife rehabilitaion centre and they are taking him for me. Thanks again

[werdnal]

Thank you for taking the time to rescue this little chap. I know several people around here who treat magpie as vermin and would just twist his neck, but although they do a lot of damage to nesting birds, everything has a right to life.

When I was little, a neighbour's son rescued a young magpie, and indeed it quickly imprinted on him, and us, and became very tame. She was a real character and caused mayhem in the neighbourhood. She pinched a full box of matches and a 50p from us at different times. She'd walk right in if you had the door open, and help herself to the cats tea, and would bang on the window and wake us up. She also used to pick up stones and drop them inside the wheel trims of parked cars, so when you drove off your car made a hell of a noise. Her worst trick by far though, was to ambush the milkman when he reached the start of the street, ride up the road on his float and peck all the milk bottle tops off. He had to keep a few empty crates ready, and before he entered the road, would put them on top so she couldn't reach the bottles!

However, although she was a firm favourite with all the local kids, she knew who lived in the street and became aggressive towards any children from other neighbourhoods who came to visit. Eventually she pecked a visting little girl in the face and drew blood, and her parents made an official complaint to our neighbour, so he was forced to get rid of her. He had to take her to a sanctuary as there was no way she could have lived wild by herself any more.

You have done the right thing getting your bird to expert help and they will get it back to the wild where it belongs!