I'm sure lots of you have had this problem - magpies nesting nearby and basically bullying the other birds. Every year we have many magpies around and they seem to keep the other birds away when they're around. Is there anything I can do to stop them from nesting in the back garden at least?

There probably isn't but it's worth a try! I'm sure I would get many mroe bids coming to visit if there weren't so many magpies around.

take up falconry?

This post was last modified: 20-02-2008 08:42 PM by South Coast Ranger.

take up falconry?

That would definitely get rid of them! And be quite fun too

There isn't really a lot you can do, as even if you did stop the nesting in your garden you can't to much about other gardens or surrounding countryside. If you make sure there is plenty of food to go round then I'm sure the birds will come.

They are very annoying aren't they! Plus you probably wouldn't want to leave anything shiny lieing around with lots of them about!

I can't think of many ways to stop them hanging around if food is there though. You can get bird feeders just for smaller birds can't you? That might help.

I may tread on a few toes here, but magpies are birds, just like any other. Why should we distinguish between, say, a robin and a magpie. If you look carefully at magpies, they are the most fabulous colours and so intelligent.

If you want to allow the small birds to feed without larger birds pinching all the food, then do as I have done - buy a bird table with a roof, then close in the sides with a plastics covered mesh with around 50mm square holes.

If you really want to keep the magpies at a distance, place a dead rabbit or two as far away from the feeding station as possible, the magpies will go for the rabbit every time.

I have Magpies but have to say that they don't present too much of a problem. I ensure that there is plenty of food placed at different sites around the garden, so the birds don't need to congregate in one area. This seems to work quite well. However, the best deterrent seems to be a couple of BIG FAT wood pigeons who bully the magpies but leave the smaller birds alone .

My tips would therefore be:
Accept that you can't prevent the Magpies from using your garden (after all, as Wild Cannon says, they are fabulous and very intelligent birds).
Ensure that there is enough food for all (at different sites around the garden, if poss).
Attract a couple of heavyweight minders

I agree with wild canon. Although magpies can be a pain & a lot of farmers near me have been know to trap them & hang them on their wire fences to keeps other away from lambs etc. Not that I like that sort of stuff. You may have read my previous thread about our brain-damaged magpie 'Maggy'. Well Maggy & his mate are already guarding the tree where he made a right hash of building a nest last year where they did managed to raise at least one youngster.He regularly visits the garden to raid a bucket where I throw some rabbit food that gets left over.He might be slightly brain-damaged but he is doing OK. Skip doesn't like magpies either but he did help to feed this one so he could survive!! Funnily enough we do not get lots of them in the garden.

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This post was last modified: 24-02-2008 06:29 PM by tibbar.

Obviously my first post was a bit tongue-in-cheek. I agree with Wild Canon too. In fact Magpies are one of my favourite birds (after Nightjars). After all they are just doing what they have evolved to do and like most common UK wildlife have been able to adapt incredibly well to exploit the urban landscape that they find themselves in.

They are faced with a relative lack of predators and a plentiful food supply and their population reflects that. I guess that the main natural threat would come from large raptors. I did see a Sparrowhawk that had caught a Magpie, spend an entire day eating it.