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Rob and Martin have referred to a research article on translocation
of attacking magpies. [D.N. Jones & T. Nealson (2003) Management of
aggressive Australian magpies by translocation. Wildlife Research
30(2):167-177].
Part of the abstract reads:
A total of 141 magpies were translocated, 31.7% of all birds
investigated. Of these, only five (3.5%) returned to the place of capture, and
22 (15.6%) were resighted elsewhere; there was no evidence of 'homing'.
With regard to "there was no evidence of
'homing'" maybe it is because there is no longer a home to
go to.
Darryl Jones has written in the July/August 2003 Interpretive
Birding Bulletin [vol 4, no 4] in regard to the female left with young to
rear.
"......... Needless to say, the first signs were both impressive and
ominous: almost all females had a new male in place within a day (and
sometimes within hours) of the removal of their erstwhile mate. In all but
one of the new pairs, the replacement male was not a neighbor or otherwise mated
and territorial bird. The males simply appeared, as though out of thin
air. As observed in other species there is apparently an invisible
underworld of floaters, mate-less males that skulk around in the shadows and
edges of established territories without being seen but ready to grab an
opportunity should one arise"
And the step-parental magpies were approximately twice as diligent in chick
provisioning as had been parental males.
Val Ford
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