Springtime in Australia and New Zealand means one thing: it’s swooping season.
Articles on Magpies
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Catherine Chidgey’s disquieting, award-winning novel The Axeman’s Carnival explores the disintegrating relationship of a rural couple from the perspective of their pet magpie, Tama.
Magpies are expert problem-solvers – but just how good they are seems to depend on the size of the social group they grow up in.
In every Australian city, you’re likely to come across a warbling magpie. How do they cope with the onslaught of noise? It turns out, the smarter ones cope better.
It can be hard and costly to collect data on the threats to species at specific locations. Wildlife emergency response services have long-running records for hundreds of species that suffered harm.
A new book explores how birds have adapted to our cities - from nesting in skyscrapers to snatching food - reflecting on the beauty and wildness they bring to urban landscapes.
It was the first time a bird has removed a tracking device, and the second time a bird species showed cooperative ‘rescue’ behaviour.
A world-first study inspected 900 bird nest specimens from 1823 to 2018. The types of debris the birds use reflect changes in Australian society over time.
For the past 50 years, international animal cognition research has focused on how tool use is related to animal intelligence. But new research casts doubt on long-held assumptions.
Some skinks have been known to kill their babies – but one remarkable species goes to any lengths to save them.
Magpies have such good hearing, they can hear the very faint sound of grass roots being chewed.
Magpie attacks aren’t as common as you (and the media) might think. But here are a few tricks to get you through swooping season unscathed - and a few classic tactics that don’t work.
Like reptiles, birds do not have two separate exits from the body. They have one, called the cloaca. It is quite similar to the human anus but the cloaca expels both indigestible bits and toxins.
Magpies living near airports are less likely to flee from the sound of passing planes, new research shows. But it’s unclear whether this makes them more or less likely to actually get hit.
Magpies have long memories, and human behaviour towards them largely determines how they respond
‘Theiving magpies’ obsessed with glitter but what’s the truth amid the folklore?
If you come across a young cuckoo this summer, you’ll be witness to one of the most bizarre sights in nature. Cuckoo chicks are interlopers in the nests of other species, and can be seen being frantically…
September is the peak of Australia’s own version of “home-grown terrorism” (as memorably described to me by a distraught and bleeding school principal, valiantly attempting to protect his pupils), when…
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Emeritus Professor in Animal Behaviour, University of New England
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