Magpies

Hello featherbrain,

Magpies are very difficult to deter. They are a dominant and prominent species, but they do far less damage to the rest of the wildlife in gardens than most people believe. I would recommend trying one of the following:

• Half-full plastic bottles or CDs hung up in trees to scare the predators away. Magpies don't like the way light reflects from the surface.
• GuardnEyes scarecrow balloon, available from Dazer UK.

You can help the birds in your garden by planting climbers such as ivy and honeysuckle, and dense shrubs such as hawthorn.

You can protect songbird nests with two-inch mesh wire netting. For hole-nesting birds, or open nest boxes, simply fix the netting a foot or so around and over the box ensuring that it is at least one foot away from the entrance hole and cannot be forced flat. 

Put a two-foot circle of netting around a nest on the ground, with a netting roof just below the height of the surrounding vegetation (but at least one foot above the nest). Use a forked stick to prop up the centre to prevent a predator pressing it down.

For larger birds, such as blackbirds, three-inch mesh can be used (but jays may be able to get through this). A rectangle of wire fitted above the nest has also been successful. Magpies are wary of traps, so it is possible that just the presence of netting over a nest is sufficient to put them off. Old rusty netting is best, but new netting can be camouflaged with streaks of green and black paint (please allow this to dry before putting in position).

The best time to protect a nest is probably during incubation and certainly as soon as the eggs hatch. Many small birds may desert a nest if disturbed during building; only the most severe upheaval will cause a bird to desert a nest with young in it. Nests are also more vulnerable once the young have hatched.

Hi MrsT - we have magpies and a grey squirell! They don't seem to be fighting with the other birds, but do gobble up ALL of the food within a day. It doesn't seem to be a particulary bad thing as the seeds left on the ground by the squirrel is attracting other birds. I saw a gold finch and a grey collared dove this morning. Anyway, I am concerned about the magpies getting more territorial (we have nesting wood pigeons in the tree) will the CDs only deter the magpies? I don't want to scare other birds off. Also someone mentioned garlic in brid food would deter them is that true?

Mrs Odlin

my magpies the ones that nest in my garden had two young ones that have now left the nest

they love dryed meal worms  also other foods the more i feed them theless change that they will be looking for young birds in their nest to eat

I've tried CDs and the result was a bird-free garden.

Grandmamac - but did it deter other birds too? I only want to deter magpies.

I'm having a problem with magpies too, I've recently moved into my house which use to have a garden which was solely gravel and a concrete patio, which I've removed all the gravel and dug out a pond, scattered wildflower seed around the garden and put perennials around the borders, with hanging feeders dotted around my fences, as I want to make my garden wildlife and pollinator friendly. 

My problem with the magpies is I can't put out fat balls or mealworm for the smaller birds because it attracts 4 magpies which consume it all in a matter of days... I've also caught they fighting a wood pigeon in my garden as well as plucking the petals off of my plants! 

I'm not sure if this is also the magpies, slugs, or a grey squirrel or mouse which visits my garden but something is also decapitating the flowerheads from some of my plants, I've not caught anything red-handed doing this yet, so can't be sure what is doing this... 

If anyone knows of a way to deter magpies exclusively that would be very appreciated, as I don't want to deter the song birds (blackbirds, goldfinch, sparrows, etc) from my garden as well.

Which types of flowers? Sparrows hack at crocuses for example.....(not that I'm suggesting it's crocuses in June).

Ox-eye daisies, primroses and campanula persicifolia.

And an osteospermum is what I caught the magpie plucking the petals off of.

"Guardian feeders" are a small birds friend! The ones I have keep anything starling sized and bigger out.Quite pricey, but worth it. RSPB sell them but I think mine came from CJ Wildlife, or something similar (at work so can't check)