When I first moved to Fife, 30+years ago, Magpies were a rarity. Fife birders would travel to get them on their list.We seem to have a Magpie taking up residence in our village, never thought I'd get excited about that happening, still extremely rare around here.
Studies have shown that Magpies don't make any real significant impact on the breeding success of smaller breeding birds, they just get a bad press, along with other corvids (often thanks to those with ulterior motives for removing corvids of all types from particular habitats). I would suspect that those birds which nest where they can be spotted by corvids, and other predators, would just as likely have lost their eggs/brood to those predators already in the vicinity (such as cats, Sparrowhawks, Carrion Crows etc) had the Magpies not been around.When I first moved to Fife, 30+years ago, Magpies were a rarity. Fife birders would travel to get them on their list.
Six years ago, I would see the odd one at Seafield. Now, they are everywhere, and sometimes the Seafield count can be into double figures.
It can't be doing the springtime nesting birds any good, so be careful what you wish for.