How dangerous are magpies?
The magpie problem rouses passions and is difficult to answer satisfactorily. Magpies have been blamed for wiping out a neighbourhood’s songbirds and causing the national decline of the song thrush. There is no doubt that magpies raid nests for eggs and nestlings. The question is whether this reduces the population, or whether the birds are still producing enough young to maintain the numbers of the adult population. The RSPB and other organisations have investigated the problem of magpies’ affecting small bird populations and have failed to find any clear link. For instance, nationwide surveys of bird populations show there is no general link between rising magpie numbers and falling songbird numbers. With song thrushes and some other species, it has been found that they are still producing plenty of young. The decline is caused by increased mortality of adult birds in winter, presumably through shortage of food. This does not mean that magpies do not have an effect in some local situ
