Robin + Magpie Interaction - Arapahoe

[Jared Del Rosso]

Five years ago, at the end of the first week of June, I encountered a magpie pair predating a fledgling robin while the robin's parents screeched and hopped, helpless to intervene. 

This morning, I checked out an angry robin at the edge of my Centennial yard. I wanted to ensure we didn't have a neighborhood cat around. The bird's vocalizations were enough to upset both my chickens and a squirrel.

I found not a cat, nor a Cooper's Hawk (my next guess), but a magpie. I figured the magpie was after an egg or a nestling. The robin chased the magpie and I left the scene to unfold how it would unfold.

This evening, when investigating the song of a thrush from the edge of my yard (Merlin says Swainson's, but I need to play it back and confirm) I came face to face with a flightless fledgling robin. So we're past eggs and nestlings, it seems. A quite striking bird, already having lost the odd, downy head feathers.

Best of luck to the robin and the robin parents. Same, too, to the magpies, which have been attending to some noisy young somewhere in a nest in a neighbor's yard.

- Jared Del Rosso

Centennial, CO 

[Mary Kay Waddington]

Magpie interactions -- Arapahoe

To follow up on Jared's observations.  This year I saw a Mourning Dove (the symbol of pacifism) sparring with a Magpie.  The Dove won.  Another time I saw a rabbit chasing a Magpie all over the place -- the Magpie won (got the baby rabbit.) Then I followed the sound of a Magpie harassing something else and discovered a Cooper's Hawk on the ground eating another baby rabbit.  The Magpie tried to steal it, but the Cooper's won.   And finally, last week I heard a whole bunch of Magpies jawing noisily and figured there must be a predator they were after.  To my delight it turned out to be a Bobcat!  Not 20' from me lying in the grass.  The Magpies were smart enough to not get too near.  Call that one a draw.

Mary Kay Waddington

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