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Message: <blockquote data-quote="David FG" data-source="post: 1859172" data-attributes="member: 15636">Intelligent?  For a bird, maybe, but let's face it, that isn't setting the bar too high.How big is a Magpie's skull - and, as is inevitable - how big is the brain that fits inside it?  There's not a great deal of room in there.Ok, so from a Magpie's point of view (and I am conscious that any attempt to do this is probably doomed to failure, but anyway...) it sees a dead Magpie.  We'll accept it knows a dead co-Magpie.  Now something caused that Magpie to be dead.  That is alarming.  The Magpie goes into 'alarm mode': making a lot of noise, which has two designs: to alert other Magpies of a potential threat and to scare off whatever is out there.It's much the same as 'mobbing', but in this instance mobbing an unseen predator - and an unseen predator (from the point of view of potential prey) is a lot more dangerous than a seen one.</blockquote>