There is a family group of magpies that visit my place quite regularly. I do confess to feeding them (not every day) when they sing me a particularly nice song. But the make-up of the group has me puzzled. There is one adult male, rather slender, two adult females and one juvenile. Although the juvenile occasionally begs, the adults don’t feed it, and if i drop a morsel or two at its feet it does pick it up. But the adults will pinch it if bubs is a bit slow. Are magpies bigamous, or is one of the females an older sibling?
Margaret Leggoe.
