I've seen the original video shared around tumblr, so I thought I'd share this update! another lovely instance of net zero information lol (well, except that I did learn Australian magpies engage in chorus calls)
These are 3 or 4 of a family of 5 magpies that live in my area. There's a mother and 4 (not so little) babies, who are still a bit fat with downy feathers; their father was a friend to my neighbour for 30 years and died on her doorstep, so he's buried in her backyard. At mealtimes, he would show his children the pecking order of who gets to eat first, and he would follow her on walks around the neighbourhood.
Every day I get to hear this little family singing, and sometimes they all sit in my fruit tree. Sometimes they roll around in the grass with their feet in the air. I just had the pleasure of eating toast under some of their watchful eyes (standing about a 5 feet away) since they probably thought I might feed them, and now they're waiting by my neighbour's back door. They get excited, singing and flying every time she comes out, and singing for her to come out. But mostly they sing anyways, just for funsies.
haven't been able to stop thinking of a locked tomb + his dark materials crossover all week, so here's some incredibly self-indulgent ramblings and sketches to exorcise the concept out of my head (gideon's daemon is a pokemon - a growlithe - because of course gideon's daemon would be a pokemon)
Sure, Aussie magpies are scary when you get swooped, we've all been there. I've been there. But consider: you can befriend them. Whistle to imitate their song, slip them some delectable tidbits, and voila: you have new friends, who are birds. This is good.
Here's the secret: if you're careful and respectful and learn how to interact with them in a way that shows you're careful and respectful, you can befriend *any* bird on that list. Heck, any bird at all really.
*this is not an endorsement for people just getting into birds' personal spaces or feeding wild birds or anything utterly ignorant and destructive along those lines
before y'all say impossible for cassowaries, I will remind everyone that they were tamed, domesticated, and reared as farm animals on Papua/Niugini/Niu Gini/New Guinea
earth fact time. there's a play behaviour in birds that a paper calls co-lying, which is essentially where they lay side by side on the ground together. australian magpies do it, and there's been some evidence to suggest ravens do it, too.