Watch a Black-billed Magpie stop by the perch to investigate the Hellgate Osprey nest. Iris stays on high alert while her mate chases the interloper from the vicinity. Watch LIVE at AllAboutBirds.org/Ospreys Black-billed Magpies are curious birds that are known to harass larger birds and other potential predators, especially when food is available. Groups of magpies may work to distract larger birds in an attempt to steal their prey. They also sometimes nest near Ospreys and other raptors, perha

Animal researcher Marc Bekoff writes the following in his book "The Emotional Lives of Animals" about this scene: "A few years ago my friend Rod and I were riding our bicycles around Boulder, Colorado, when we witnessed a very interesting encounter among five magpies. Magpies are corvids, a very intelligent family of birds. One magpie had obviously been hit by a car and was lying dead on the side of the road. The four other mag- pies were standing around him. One approached the corpse, gently pe

Who did it better? Tina the burrowing owl and Zisou the Black Throated Magpie Jay both came across Jerusalem Crickets in the aviaries so we filmed their reactions. This was the first time they had seen it. Empirically, corvids including jays are more intelligent than owls, but nature doesn’t necessarily value more rank intelligence the same way humans do. Both birds are considered generalists, so you might expect them to react to novel items the same way. But they don’t. This is hardly a scienti