>He is mostly, he does like to start his singing very early in the morning though
Out of all the racket that occurs in the mornings, bird song is the one that I actually like hearing lol
This can be caused by people feeding unsuitable food (bread is a big one) to birds, there just aren't the right nutrients and this causes weak bones and beaks which causes them to break.
That could be the culprit. I am aware of a neighbour giving them bread. I haven’t seen it happen but I’ve found chunks of bread in my yard that definitely didn’t come from my house.
Raw mince also, they lack the ability to remove any mince that gets stuck to the upper inside of their beak, so it just rots and takes the beak with it. If someone is going to feed them mince it needs to be mixed with Wambaroo which changes the consistency
Im finding the claim about meat rotting a hole in the beak unverified other than anecdotal.
* Source
ABC Perth Facebook post. 20th September 2018
>Stop feeding mince to magpies!
>Snake and bird re-locator Lana Field says feeding them raw mince can cause all sorts of health dramas 😱
>"Mince is actually really high in the wrong nutrients and when they eat it, it draws calcium from their bones.The other thing that happens is it can get stuck in the bottom of their beak, and it can actually rot a hole in their beak."
For me it doesn't seem to be logical. The idea is that the consistency of minced meat is unlike any other food found in the wild causing it to become stuck doesn't ring true. To be clear im not going to start feeding birds mince to find out but if someone has any more evidence i would love to see it.
Former zookeeper here. It's more the fact that mince is deficient in calcium which leads to metabolic bone disease. The bird's metabolism will utilize calcium from it's bones when it's absent from it's diet leading to deformities, brittle bones, and other issues. This bird may have been fed a calcium deficient diet while growing resulting in the deformed beak which will cause further issues with it's inability to capture insects and small lizards that are high in calcium. You see the same issues in captive reared lizards with weak, rubbery jaws when calcium and vitamin supplements are absent.
Are we talking about the magpies having mince for every meal for every day for an extended period of time for this to become an issue? I give my local magpies a few piece of topside every few weeks. How do mapgies normally keep on top of their calcium requirement?
Yeah, if they get all their calories from daily feeds of mince, that would lead to issues. Insect exoskeletons have calcium carbonate, garden skink bones, even earthworms have the same amount of calcium as fresh milk. Urban birds can be very lazy if there's an abundant source of easy calories, they're very clever. People think they're training the magpies to stop by for a feed when it's probably the humans being trained. They know what night is bin night in every neighbourhood in their territory better than the human residents.
Thanks for that reply. This particular topic is really hard to find solid information on and you've delivered that in spades. I'll continue with the occasional feed of topside (it's part of my cats diet) but will be aware of giving them only one or two really small pea sized portions so they still have to hunt after they stop by my house.
>It's more the fact that mince is deficient in calcium which leads to metabolic bone disease.
Yeh that i understand 100%. I add in extra calcium for my chooks when needed.
Its the claim of any food like mince causing rotting that seems suspect not the ~~real~~ understood reason we know not to feed them mince which is the calcium deficiency you stated.
It must be the disproportionated iron causing calcium deficiency I guess?
Also want to add as it is hard to dismiss that I just don’t understand why feed wild on a regular basis,
I know interacting with nature especially the animals is an awe feeling, literally priceless!
But feeding wild on a regular basis can stretch to an extreme harm!
I get a lot negativity when I say this but anyways, it actually will be adding up to the list of reasons for extinction along with habitat loss, pollution and etcetera…
I mean I would never thought of feeding magpies with meat in thousand year anyways!
Wild depends on being wild!
@LordBlackass Please don’t be offended as it is not really my intention here and I am sure your heart is in the right place.
There's a number of articles referencing the "beak rot". I'm on mobile now but simply Googling "mince rotting bird beak" bought up a few from credible sources
> I'm on mobile now but simply Googling "mince rotting bird beak" bought up a few from credible sources
Nothing even referencing a study can be found as far as i can see, credible sources like the ABC just reference word of mouth anecdotes.
I agree with the others, this beak rot stuff just doesn't sound plausible. Magpies are omnivores and will eat just about anything, it's doubtful that they don't regularly encounter soft foods like mince in the wild that could get stuck to their beak. I'm sure they have a way to clear it, such as their tongue.
There's a similar phenomenon called angel wing syndrome thatd increasingly common among waterfowl, likely mainly due to vitamin deficiencies caused by eating too much bread
AFAICT this particular association popped up about 15 years ago but is not well supported by any available science.
In the UK, for instance, the “don’t feed bread to waterfowl” meme caused such a decline in people feeding bread to ducks and swans that the Queen’s master of swans, in association with an Oxford professor of ornithology, put out a public call for people to keep feeding them bread. Bread is an important source of calories for many waterfowl over the British winter, and there has not been a credible link to angel wing.
That probably doesn’t translate to it being massively OK here, Australian winters are not as bleak and barren as UK ones, and bird populations aren’t as dependent.
But the angel wing thing seems not to be true.
"Bread, for example, should be avoided as it lacks essential nutrients and can even cause birth defects in nestlings. Another food to be cautious about is plain mince, which contains high levels of phosphate that can result in calcium loss from magpies' beaks and bones."
https://www.shop.themagpiewhisperer.com/blogs/articles/feeding-magpies
When I first moved to Australia their songs were (and still are) one of my favourite sounds.
Sometimes it reminds me of old swings and it feels kinda nostalgic.
He’s a regular at the local footy club pub/gaming rooms, and every one is nice to him without knowing anything about his life.
His jeans don’t cover his whole butt crack and he wears an old and raggedy base ball cap.
We have a hunchback male cockatoo that visits us, with a smaller eye than his other and a wing lower on his body than the other from his spine and skeleton being deformed. He is either blind in that eye or has limited vision. But he has lived to adulthood. The other cockatoos seem to avoid him and visa versa. Whether that is because he is bullied or from some form or genetic exclusion or competitive behavior of the flock I cant say.
There's a family of magpies in my street and everytime we take the dog for a walk they'll fly over to us and land and walk around the dog while he sniffs about, they sing us songs when we leave too.
I love Magpies, they're so smart and will visit you everyday once they get to know you. I have a family of magpies visit me each day, I love to see them and sit with them for about 1/2 an hour to an hour depending on how hot it is.
It's so good to see Jimmy is happy and found himself a lovely place to call home. Thank you for sharing the photo and your story about him. xx
It's hard to tell from the lighting in the photo, but it's easy to tell apart males and females in person. Males have a large white patch on the back of their neck/ shoulders, on females this is grey. Hope this helps :) poor guy/gal looks a little goofy with his beak like that but if he's adapted to living with it then hopefully he lives a good long life.
Or it's a genetic birth defect, or he got a disease, or he had raw meat stuck to the upper inside of his beak, causing it to rot, or... a million other things mate
Easy on the Grassy Knoll theory....
He looks very polite
He is mostly, he does like to start his singing very early in the morning though
>He is mostly, he does like to start his singing very early in the morning though Out of all the racket that occurs in the mornings, bird song is the one that I actually like hearing lol
This can be caused by people feeding unsuitable food (bread is a big one) to birds, there just aren't the right nutrients and this causes weak bones and beaks which causes them to break.
That could be the culprit. I am aware of a neighbour giving them bread. I haven’t seen it happen but I’ve found chunks of bread in my yard that definitely didn’t come from my house.
Show them this picture and tell them to stop
If I can figure out who’s feeding them I’ll definitely have a word
Raw mince also, they lack the ability to remove any mince that gets stuck to the upper inside of their beak, so it just rots and takes the beak with it. If someone is going to feed them mince it needs to be mixed with Wambaroo which changes the consistency
Im finding the claim about meat rotting a hole in the beak unverified other than anecdotal. * Source ABC Perth Facebook post. 20th September 2018 >Stop feeding mince to magpies! >Snake and bird re-locator Lana Field says feeding them raw mince can cause all sorts of health dramas 😱 >"Mince is actually really high in the wrong nutrients and when they eat it, it draws calcium from their bones.The other thing that happens is it can get stuck in the bottom of their beak, and it can actually rot a hole in their beak." For me it doesn't seem to be logical. The idea is that the consistency of minced meat is unlike any other food found in the wild causing it to become stuck doesn't ring true. To be clear im not going to start feeding birds mince to find out but if someone has any more evidence i would love to see it.
Former zookeeper here. It's more the fact that mince is deficient in calcium which leads to metabolic bone disease. The bird's metabolism will utilize calcium from it's bones when it's absent from it's diet leading to deformities, brittle bones, and other issues. This bird may have been fed a calcium deficient diet while growing resulting in the deformed beak which will cause further issues with it's inability to capture insects and small lizards that are high in calcium. You see the same issues in captive reared lizards with weak, rubbery jaws when calcium and vitamin supplements are absent.
Are we talking about the magpies having mince for every meal for every day for an extended period of time for this to become an issue? I give my local magpies a few piece of topside every few weeks. How do mapgies normally keep on top of their calcium requirement?
Yeah, if they get all their calories from daily feeds of mince, that would lead to issues. Insect exoskeletons have calcium carbonate, garden skink bones, even earthworms have the same amount of calcium as fresh milk. Urban birds can be very lazy if there's an abundant source of easy calories, they're very clever. People think they're training the magpies to stop by for a feed when it's probably the humans being trained. They know what night is bin night in every neighbourhood in their territory better than the human residents.
Thanks for that reply. This particular topic is really hard to find solid information on and you've delivered that in spades. I'll continue with the occasional feed of topside (it's part of my cats diet) but will be aware of giving them only one or two really small pea sized portions so they still have to hunt after they stop by my house.
>It's more the fact that mince is deficient in calcium which leads to metabolic bone disease. Yeh that i understand 100%. I add in extra calcium for my chooks when needed. Its the claim of any food like mince causing rotting that seems suspect not the ~~real~~ understood reason we know not to feed them mince which is the calcium deficiency you stated.
It must be the disproportionated iron causing calcium deficiency I guess? Also want to add as it is hard to dismiss that I just don’t understand why feed wild on a regular basis, I know interacting with nature especially the animals is an awe feeling, literally priceless! But feeding wild on a regular basis can stretch to an extreme harm! I get a lot negativity when I say this but anyways, it actually will be adding up to the list of reasons for extinction along with habitat loss, pollution and etcetera… I mean I would never thought of feeding magpies with meat in thousand year anyways! Wild depends on being wild! @LordBlackass Please don’t be offended as it is not really my intention here and I am sure your heart is in the right place.
There's a number of articles referencing the "beak rot". I'm on mobile now but simply Googling "mince rotting bird beak" bought up a few from credible sources
> I'm on mobile now but simply Googling "mince rotting bird beak" bought up a few from credible sources Nothing even referencing a study can be found as far as i can see, credible sources like the ABC just reference word of mouth anecdotes.
I agree with the others, this beak rot stuff just doesn't sound plausible. Magpies are omnivores and will eat just about anything, it's doubtful that they don't regularly encounter soft foods like mince in the wild that could get stuck to their beak. I'm sure they have a way to clear it, such as their tongue.
What a crock of shit. Evidence please.
There's a similar phenomenon called angel wing syndrome thatd increasingly common among waterfowl, likely mainly due to vitamin deficiencies caused by eating too much bread
AFAICT this particular association popped up about 15 years ago but is not well supported by any available science. In the UK, for instance, the “don’t feed bread to waterfowl” meme caused such a decline in people feeding bread to ducks and swans that the Queen’s master of swans, in association with an Oxford professor of ornithology, put out a public call for people to keep feeding them bread. Bread is an important source of calories for many waterfowl over the British winter, and there has not been a credible link to angel wing. That probably doesn’t translate to it being massively OK here, Australian winters are not as bleak and barren as UK ones, and bird populations aren’t as dependent. But the angel wing thing seems not to be true.
"Bread, for example, should be avoided as it lacks essential nutrients and can even cause birth defects in nestlings. Another food to be cautious about is plain mince, which contains high levels of phosphate that can result in calcium loss from magpies' beaks and bones." https://www.shop.themagpiewhisperer.com/blogs/articles/feeding-magpies
Google it, there is plenty of evidence.
One requires a certain level of intellect to "Google it", something the commenter is obviously lacking
Magpie songs are the most beautiful of noises.
When I first moved to Australia their songs were (and still are) one of my favourite sounds. Sometimes it reminds me of old swings and it feels kinda nostalgic.
We do animal rescue and have a young Magpie who’s blind in one eye with us at the moment. I hear him singing throughout the day and it’s glorious!
Not struggling to eat obviously, regardless of the beak
Not at all, he’s a chunky little guy
I used to have a magpie that walked with a hobble and limp that I called Lt Dan.
He’s a regular at the local footy club pub/gaming rooms, and every one is nice to him without knowing anything about his life. His jeans don’t cover his whole butt crack and he wears an old and raggedy base ball cap.
What a fucking mad dog.
Someone feeding him with the wrong type of food that is not a part of the bird natural diet.
Yeah looks like beak rot. Seems to be coping which is a positive.
Wow what a terrific audience
puzzled quicksand school salt hunt concerned wasteful soft spoon sense *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
We have a hunchback male cockatoo that visits us, with a smaller eye than his other and a wing lower on his body than the other from his spine and skeleton being deformed. He is either blind in that eye or has limited vision. But he has lived to adulthood. The other cockatoos seem to avoid him and visa versa. Whether that is because he is bullied or from some form or genetic exclusion or competitive behavior of the flock I cant say.
There's a family of magpies in my street and everytime we take the dog for a walk they'll fly over to us and land and walk around the dog while he sniffs about, they sing us songs when we leave too.
Jimmy !
At least you didn’t name this little magpie Paul, Plain old boring old Paul (Edit: typo)
Man, thanks. I haven't thought of this song in years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJLX0sWukwo&pp=ygUGRHJhcGh0
I love Magpies, they're so smart and will visit you everyday once they get to know you. I have a family of magpies visit me each day, I love to see them and sit with them for about 1/2 an hour to an hour depending on how hot it is. It's so good to see Jimmy is happy and found himself a lovely place to call home. Thank you for sharing the photo and your story about him. xx
Jimmy the Beak is his gangster name.
It's hard to tell from the lighting in the photo, but it's easy to tell apart males and females in person. Males have a large white patch on the back of their neck/ shoulders, on females this is grey. Hope this helps :) poor guy/gal looks a little goofy with his beak like that but if he's adapted to living with it then hopefully he lives a good long life.
Thank you for that!
Oh that is sad for the Bird
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Or it's a genetic birth defect, or he got a disease, or he had raw meat stuck to the upper inside of his beak, causing it to rot, or... a million other things mate Easy on the Grassy Knoll theory....
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Wtf is 'lil shots' supposed to mean? Is he a SoundCloud rapper?
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Far more likely from inappropriate feeding by suburban well-meaning folks. Foods like bread and beef mince are really bad for birds