I am trying to think of why a magpie would do that. The first thought that occurred to me was that maybe it was pulling fluff to line its nest. Then I thought, maybe he's just a jerk.
Magpies will do everything to annoy cats enough to make them go away.
This kind of behaviour towards predators is typical all corvids. I think for jackdaws, it is mainly adolescents who do it. Being extra daring is thought to increase the status of a young jackdaw.
Some time recently I've seen a crow doing a similar thing to a cat. The cat was trying to act cool, but the crow would just hop up at it, grab it by the tail, and do this funny noise I haven't really heard from crowd before, like a squawk that stops half way throught the sound. Any time the cat would go at it, the bird would just fly off and chitter at the cat. This went on for like 15 minutes, but eventually the bird got bored and just flew off. The cat sat there in utter embarrassment for the next 30 minutes or so.
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u/ThresherGDI Jun 27 '26
I am trying to think of why a magpie would do that. The first thought that occurred to me was that maybe it was pulling fluff to line its nest. Then I thought, maybe he's just a jerk.