I fucking love Australian magpies, the way they patrol and defend their little patches of grass every day without fail always cheers me up. I want to befriend the nearby ones but they don't seem too interested sadly. I try to buy their friendship with food, but the food attracts the pigeons, and they HATE pigeons.
I love them too. This Australian lady on instagram posts videos with magpies hopping on and walking all over her all the time. Don’t know how she gets them this tame.
What kind of food do you offer? I'm not an expert with this, but I've had some decent luck if you stick to pure meat (ie. Little bits of mince). Other birds like pigeons aren't as interested in pure meat, so you basically only attract magpies, crows, currawongs or kookaburras.
Had a bit of a scare recently. Saw a little bird on the ground near that nest, thought baby passed away. But the baby opened eyes, so I washed my hands, and lifted baby into the nest. The mother jolted in fear, but didn't fly away. Since then I haven't seen the baby on the ground again, so hopefully the baby is alright. Already has feathers BTW.A dove (most likely a mourning dove) has made a nest right outside where I live IRL.
It's fledging!
Most birds leave the nest before they know how to fly. As long as it's uninjured and away from immediate danger (roads, pets) it's doing exactly what it needs to do. You must have created a nice space where the family feels safe to raise their babies.
The nest is near the front door that I often go in and out of, so the mother dove must've observed that and built a nest there anyway.
Doves are known for making nests in risky/strange places, but I like to think they could sense you are a good person.
Happened again ... Different baby this time, with less feathers. Seemed alive though, so put back in nest. The mother was scared off this time, but later came back. Was able to find out there's 2 babies in the nest. Hopefully it doesn't happen too often. Looks like I'm going to have to check on the nest area every so often now. Normal for doves?
Yep! I recommend just letting them be, as long as they are not in immediate danger. It sounds like they are ready to leave the nest and explore the big world.
I dunno. They barely move. Especially the smaller one. Also the smaller one was on the ground again, still alive but barely moving.
That's pretty normal for fledgelings. Their instinct is to freeze where they are and wait for the parents to bring them food, for the most part. Wildlife rehabs call spring "kidnapping season" because so many people bring in fledglings they find that were perfectly fine. Good intentions, but misguided.
If it's a common occurrence, you can put UV-reflective stickers on the window to help birds see it. Doves began hitting the french doors near my back feeder whenever they would get spooked by hawks, and stickers stopped it completely.
Hopefully the repeated falls onto hard ground (from about 2 to 3 m or 7 to 9') hasn't messed them up. Set out some patio chairs by the nest site to cushion any future falls.
update: Looks like one of them may not have made it (the one with less feathers). The other one seems OK though.
RIP little guy
I hope the sibling makes it.
