Scientific Study Sabotaged by Magpies

Birds, and especially corvids (no, not covids, coRvids), are awesome. This is a scientific fact proven by many experiments, which I am willing to discuss at length with anyone willing to listen (and have discussed with people definitively UNwilling to listen), because they are genuinely incredible animals.

Today, however, I would like to share the findings of one particular experiment in Australia in which scientists discovered not what they were hoping to, but something perhaps far more interesting: Magpies ain’t no narcs.

Dominique Potvin, a researcher with University of the Sunshine Coast, wrote about her team’s attempts to test some new tracking devices on local magpies to monitor their traveling and social habits. They were very excited about these tiny bird backpacks, which were suitable for smaller birds and didn’t require recapture to retrieve data:

A novel aspect of our research was the design of the harness that held the tracker. We devised a method that didn’t require birds to be caught again to download precious data or reuse the small devices.

We trained a group of local magpies to come to an outdoor, ground feeding “station” that could either wirelessly charge the battery of the tracker, download data, or release the tracker and harness by using a magnet.

The harness was tough, with only one weak point where the magnet could function. To remove the harness, one needed that magnet, or some really good scissors. We were excited by the design, as it opened up many possibilities for efficiency and enabled a lot of data to be collected.

What they did not count on was that the magpies would find the trackers to be, and I’m paraphrasing, total bullsh*t.

Within ten minutes of fitting the final tracker, we witnessed an adult female without a tracker working with her bill to try and remove the harness off of a younger bird.

Within hours, most of the other trackers had been removed. By day 3, even the dominant male of the group had its tracker successfully dismantled.

It took ten minutes for the magpies to assess the situation, consider the predicament, and unilaterally decide, “Nah.”

Potvin writes that the birds seem to have considered the trackers “parasites” that needed removal, but I think she’s being ungenerous. I think the magpies knew exactly what they were up against and said, “Not today, Big Brother.”

The part that scientists are excited about is the display of completely altruistic behavior among the birds, which has rarely been observed– they found only one other similar instance of altruism, this among wrens in the Seychelles who helped rescue their friends from sticky seed clusters. What I’M excited about is that the magpies clearly did not like higher institutions intruding on their private lives and put an end to that sh*t right away.

I always knew corvids were libertarian. I just never thought I’d see the proof.