Magpie / Buzzard. What's going on?

Graham W

Graham W

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Graham
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There's a large conifer at the bottom of the garden (About 200M away) and I could see that a Magpie was up to something going backwards and forwards.
Grabbed the "Big Lens" and when it landed on a branch it revealed the Buzzard behind...couldn't see the Buzard unless the Magpie was bending the branch out of the way. It looked for all the world as though the Magpie was feeding the Buzzard!
I've cropped the bejesus out of the pics and zoomed in a bit more to try and see what the Magpie had in it's beak...Anything going on, or just a coincidence?


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A fascinating record of unusual behaviour which I wish I could explain.

I can't see much of the other bird, are you sure it is a buzzard? I'm not doubting your sighting and given its size compared to the magpie I can't suggest an alternative, its just that the larger corvids never miss a chance to let a BoP know they are not welcome. I can't work out what the magpie is holding; it looks a bit like a piece of bark.

Are the two birds still around?

Dave
 
It is bark. Silver Birch, by the look of it. Perhaps the Magpie is paying it to stay out of the way. :D
 
Tringa said:
A fascinating record of unusual behaviour which I wish I could explain.

I can't see much of the other bird, are you sure it is a buzzard? I'm not doubting your sighting and given its size compared to the magpie I can't suggest an alternative, its just that the larger corvids never miss a chance to let a BoP know they are not welcome. I can't work out what the magpie is holding; it looks a bit like a piece of bark.

Are the two birds still around?

Dave
Click to expand...
Pretty sure it's a Buzzard...saw it fly off and they're pretty common round these parts.
 
Had this reply from Derbyshire Biological records Center.


"Thank you for your email which had been passed to me from DWT enquires.
My apologies for the delay of the response. I sent your email to the Derbyshire Ornithological Society (DOS) as I really couldn’t come up with an explanation of what was happening. Their response was that they also have never seen behaviour like this before and commented that:
“In view of the well-known mutual dislike between corvids and raptors, it would be amazing if something was going off between the two of them; yet that's what it looks like. What a pity that we couldn't quite see the whole picture.

I've had a read of magpie behaviour in Birds of the Western Palearctic and in Franklin Coombs' interesting book, The Crows. Unsurprisingly I could find nothing in either book to suggest an explanation.

Fascinating!”
Looks like you may have witnessed something unique."


Kind regards
Carole

DBRC Officer
 
A touch of the Avian Capulets and Montagues, then?
 
Magpies usually just sit out of range of Buzzards and shout at them until they (the Buzzard) goes away. I see it quite often on the course!
 
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