Sunday 9 March 2014

Australian magpie plays with a canine friend

I loved this clip that a friend sent me, of a dog and a magpie playing together It reminded me of some photos I took years ago of magpies in a local park. It sure looked to me like they were playing, or perhaps the parents were 'disciplining' the baby.
I assumed the grey-backed birds were younglings, and the white-backed ones were adults (though I'm not sure about that). It's interesting that it was not always the baby who was upside-down. Looking around the internet for information about whether Australian magpies do indeed play, I came across this hilarious site. Here's a photo of two youngsters playing while an adult keeps watch.

11 comments:

proud womon said...

maggies are just amazing... with such a beautiful 'song'... and such powerful looking beaks - i'd rather them playing with me than swooping me!

Nina Kusiak said...

Hehe: D Cute photos <3
Me and Figa (my schnauzer) are of Polish and consigner nice and warm greetings! :)
Greetings and of course welcome to join us! :)
Nina & Figa

http://figusiowyswiat.blogspot.com/

Lassiter Chase and Benjamin said...

Those are pretty birds. The black and white remind us of penguins.

Molly the Airedale said...

The dog and the magpie are just adorable playing together ☺

Love ya lots♥
Mitch and Molly

parlance said...

proud womon, they are one species that can hold its own with humans, that's for sure!

parlance said...

Hi, Nina and Figa, it's lovely to have a visit from Poland. I came over and visited your blog too. I wish I understood Polish. Google Translate helped my understand your posts, though, so that was good.

parlance said...

Lassie and Benjie, they are lovely, I agree. And so intelligent.

parlance said...

Mitch and Molly, the two little 'children' from different species seemed to understand how to play together gently.

Rebekah said...

Thanks for the link to the magpie games. Hysterical!

parlance said...

Rebekah, I think magpies are one of the most successful species at living alongside humans. They're so smart and so interesting to watch.

parlance said...

Rebekah, I think magpies are one of the most successful species at living alongside humans. They're so smart and so interesting to watch.