Magpie

I was appalled yesterday when I saw a magpie chasing after a bluetit. I assumed it was just shooing it away from the food, but then watched as it caught then killed the bluetit, and started eating it. First time I've seen this behaviour. Needless to say, my already low opinion of magpies has just diminished altogether.

I'm afraid it's called nature in action

That's nature I'm afraid Irty. The magpie was probably desperate to find food for its own chicks.

It's not only magpies - did you see the Woodpecker on Spring Watch last night try to do the same with the newly fledged Pied Flycatcher chick?

The Woodpecker on Springwatch has taken one of the Treecreeper chicks,!!!

Like the others have said that is nature, we have a magpie who tries to get the blackbirds, but they see him off by diving into him.  The magpie took 1 starling chick the other week.

We have also had 1 small blue egg on our lawn.

Applying an emotional response to nature is a bad idea. Do you hate Lions because they eat Zebra and Wildebeast? Nature is both beautful and gruesome in equal measures. Animals of all sorts rarely die of old age in their sleep. The fact is nearly everything is either eaten, starves or dies of disease. Accept this and it all becomes eaiser.

It's horrible to witness, I agree. Like everyone has said it's nature. What isn't natural is what we humans do to animals (intensive factory farming methods, bull fighting, dancing bears, lab experiments, etc) but that's another story. But re the magpie, well they also suffer at the hands of predators. A beautiful young magpie was snatched from my garden last year, by one of next door's cats, and killed. Was horrible to see, and I was helpless to do anything. So they do suffer too. :(

Magpies and other predators need to eat and to feed their young.  They aren't sentimental about where it comes from - neither should we be.  I think magpies are spectacularly handsome birds and I don't mind seeing them around!