Interesting Magpie Chough interactions observed today in a suburban Canberra park.
A party of Choughs were foraging along a tan-bark border. The local Magpies began swooping them and they cowered under bushes and next to a fence. The Magpies landed and one swaggered up to a Chough. The Chough ran forwards in a low submissive posture and quickly swept an area free of tanbark, which the Magpie then began picking over. The female Magpie then did exactly the same thing to another Chough with the same result. For a few minutes the Magpies and Chough foraged along side each other, the Choughs didn’t specifically sweep any more areas for the Magpies, but the Magpies were following the Choughs and foraging in the areas they had just cleared. After a while the Choughs slunk away under some low bushes where the Magpies didn’t follow.
My interpretation was that the Magpies were intimidating the Choughs into clearing areas for them to pick over, and the Choughs were doing this to avoid being swooped or driven away quickly.
Has anyone observed this behaviour before?
About 15 years ago in Tumut (NSW) we saw a couple of Magpies round up a family of Choughs and drove them from one side of the campground to the other, just like sheepdogs.
Stein Boddington
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