Re: [cobirds] Magpies

In Estes, when nestling magpies fledge their nests, the parents seem to stay with them for a few weeks, then the parents leave the area and the young birds create a "gang" that maraude the area.  They move through the neighborhood seemingly teaching each other what to feed upon and where food is.  In October, sometimes September,  the adults return, then both adults and juveniles flock together to create large groups and work together to find food and cover to survive the winter.

This has been noticed because I have banded most, if not all the magpies in my neighborhood, and have been doing it since 1999.  Most of the magpies within a mile of my property are banded. Yet all the magpies that I see that are more than a mile from my property are unbanded.  (The past few years, I have missed banding a handful of magpies.)

Just my observations,

Scott Rashid

Estes Park

 

On Sun, Aug 18, 2024 at 7:37 AM Patrick O'Driscoll <patodrisk@gmail.com> wrote:

This might be in the category of obvious, but the robust Black-billed Magpie population in Denver City Park (well more than a dozen active nests each spring/summer) appears to flock up in mid-late summer once the fledglings are able to forage on their own.

Then most of  the magpies appear to disappear for a couple of weeks -- probably into surrounding neighborhoods, including City Park West and even as far east as my house in Denver's Hale neighborhood, a mile away as the magpie flies. I've seen them swarm down the block, picking through lawns, shrubbery, trees as they go.

Yesterday, a flock of at least 32 showed up on the east side of City Park, moving through park lawns and a recovering patch of wild grass inside the fenced-off construction site of the park's new "Nature Play" area. It was built (opening this fall) in good bird habitat east of the Ferril Lake playground and below the SW corner of the Museum of Nature + Science. Fingers are crossed that the habitat may recover yet with the return of regularly flowing water in a man-made "creek" that winds down down through it.

A nice spot for magpies and everything else . . .  

Patrick O'Driscoll

Denver

 

On Fri, Aug 16, 2024 at 2:17 PM Jared Del Rosso <jared.delrosso@gmail.com> wrote:

As common as they and as much as most long-time CO residents shrug off magpies, posts about them never fail to generate the greatest number of genuinely interested replies!

Not much for me to add beyond this observation about us birders and the wonder that magpies seem to inspire in us. Around western Centennial, they seem to start forming roving flocks over the summer. It's neat. Blue Jays seem to do this, too. While I haven't made special note of these in eBird, a few weeks ago, I spotted nearly a dozen magpies on top of a storefront in Streets of Southglenn. A flock of nearly the same number of Blue Jays moved through my yard a few weeks ago. 

- Jared Del Rosso

Centennial, CO

On Thursday, August 15, 2024 at 8:12:02 AM UTC-6 Charlie Chase wrote:

Warm afternoon at the Arsenal.   Had a small group of 8 Magpies feeding on and around the Bison lounging at the Arsenal.  As a bull was rolling the Magpies sitting on him simply adjusted to stay on whatever side was up.  In the larger herd were about 350 starlings also feeding on and around the resting herd.  No birds in the image below-that picture was useless.

Charlie

Denver

On Wed, Aug 14, 2024 at 5:15 PM 'Hugh Kingery' via Colorado Birds <cob...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

They showed up this morning in big numbers. We counted 36 magpies -- after not seeing any for a while.

Hugh

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