Magpie injured in garden but died (1 Viewer)

[spinksy]

Hi all

New to this forum, basically last night me and my girlfriend witnissed 2 adult magpies squawking at the neighrbours cat and almost pecking it, they literally chased it down the road then were flying about almost in a panic out the back of our house. (the magpies have a nest in one of the trees outside our garden but rarely visit our garden even though I put lots of food out).

I have a mini fascination with crows and magpies and have watched many documentarys on them and how inteligent they are so I wasn't really surprised to see this happen.

Anyway fast forward half hour I go outside the front of our house to put something in my recycle bin and theres an injured young magpie sitting literally on our doorstep. It looked to have a damaged leg and wing and couldnt stand properly (or remotely fly at all).

We have many cats in the area and I didnt want to leave him so I picked him up and put him in a box and took him into the back garden. He cried out 2-3 times but was calm and just sat in the box. I put the water bowl from the bird table in the box and some fruit and meat in there too and left him for awhile. The parents (I assume they were its parent) flew past a few times but it was as if they didnt realise he was there.

I left him well alone but kept an eye on him from our upstairs window and could see him drinking the water several times and at one point he was eating the fruit. It started to get dark (and there was then literally no sign of the others) so I put the box under our garden table and positioned it so no cat or fox could get to it and left him for the night. (he looked to be falling asleep when I left him as he had put his head back and was shutting his eyes - exactly like our old parrot used to sleep)

I came down early this morning to find him stone cold dead (looked like he'd been dead awhile) which I was pretty gutted about so I ended up just putting him under a hedge just out the back garden - my main question if anyone knows is will this now mean the other magpies will leave the area? I'll be pretty down if this is the case.

 

[KC Foggin]

It's hard to say depending upon the actual amount of free roaming cats there are in your neighborhood. I'm very sorry about the death of the fledgling and a big pat on your back for trying to help it.

Hi spinsky and a warm welcome to you from those of us on staff here at BirdForum :t:

If this should happen again, please notify your local bird rehabilitators. RSPV asap and either drop the bird off or ask that they pick it up.

 

[owhy]

What an awful thing to happen. |=(|

The magpies might not return to the nest but they will presumably stay in the area. They don't travel very far.

 

[spinksy]

Yeah to be honest I wanted to call a rescue place but it was getting pretty late and I (maybe foolishly) assumed he would make it through the night considering he was eating and drinking in the box.

I popped home from work for lunch and the 2 magpies (which I'm sure are the parents) are still flying round our house and the surrounding houses squarking like mad. Feel really bad but not much I can do now :-C

 

[RichieTwitchy]

You did all you could do, but sadly nature has taken its course.

As others have said - best to contact the RSPB or a local animal centre etc but understand that that time of night would have made it difficult.

I once found 4 Goldfinch chicks on the grass - all had fallen from their nest. The inexperienced parents had built the nest on a wonky branch which moved with wind so badly as to tip out the birds. 3 were dead but one was still moving so I carefully picked it up and placed it back in the nest and secured the nest with the other branches.

Anyhoo, good news was that the little fella made it (see attached)!

So when we say 'nature has taken its course' then remember that WE are part of nature too