Magpies and Jackdaws

Two jackdaws and two magpies on and around the bird feeder. Not quite at the same time, but within five minutes of each other. The first magpie took soggy bread from the feeding tray, jumped up with it to the waterbowl and dropped it in, eating it then from the water before drinking, then stretching up on tiptoe to get his beak in the seed feeder (unsuccessfully, I think). The second waited up on the top, pecking experimentally at the finial, before hopping down to take a drink as soon as the first had gone back to the fence.

The two jackdaws came for bread and flew away to eat it, taking turns nicely after they discovered that two big birds on one small tray wouldn't go... The jackdaw colony lives in the railway viaduct across the creek, in the gaps between the stones, so we don't often see them all the way up here. They range quite far in search of food, though, I think.

The sparrows are not the least bit bothered by jackdaws. Nor are they bothered by me and the dog, even feeding happily within a few feet while I was putting the washing out, but as soon as a magpie appears on the fence they all vanish. I watched this trick this morning - from a dozen or so sparrows there was silence. They were all in the red jasmine (beesianum) which climbs up the fence. I think that's why they like the feeder on the fence better than the new one. It's so easy to perch on the fence or vanish into the bush, and it is usually in the shade. The other is a bit exposed, six feet up and in the sun most of the time.