Why do people hate magpies?

Nature is indeed cruel. My neighbour hates magpies - but has a cat!!

Across my back garden there is a house with a flood light up near the barge boards. Every year the house martins would build there nest just above the flood light and repair and lay their eggs, only for the Magpies to perch on the flood light and eat the eggs or drag the little birds from their nests.

I don't see Nature as cruel, rather as survival instinct. as one of my brothers used to put it, Nature in the raw is "eat or be eaten". Even plants 'fight' for space and nutrients.

I read Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver, and by the end I had become a magpie lover! Now I welcome them into my garden. ( It's a great read, too!)

They are not called the hoodie of the hedgerow for nothing. Can't stand them and the havoc they create.

We have magpies around and enjoy watching their antics - they are clever problem-solvers.
However I was not so pleased when one caught a baby starling recently. We didn't spot what was happening until too late.
There is a whole bookful of ancient folklore and superstition surrounding magpies so I guess the dislike is built in to us Brits from an early age. I don't know how they are viewed in other cultures.

Magpies have to eat too and they have young to feed.

I like to watch them, there are a lot of jackdaws and magpies where I live, and they seem to live peacefully together.

As with all nature, it`s dog eat dog, all species need to survive. Even we humans eat animals that would probably prefer to carry on living.
I don`t see many magpies round here, only ever one on it`s own.

If you see a single magpie greet him “morning Mr Magpie”

The Old Rhyme
One for sorrow
Two for joy
Three for a girl
Four for a boy
Five for silver
Six for gold
Seven for a story never to be told
And so on

They are still not welcome in my garden.

FannyCornforth

Grandma70s

Birds don’t have any moral sense, so we shouldn’t hate them for eating smaller birds. They are only trying to survive.

My next door neighbours said similar when DH broke up the nest in our tree.
They changed their minds when the magpies started killing pigeons on their patio

It is illegal to destroy a nest.

Thre are exceptions, but magpies are not an exception.

Dislike magpies with a passion. I think of them as bully boys. They are predatory, colonise easily and are often aggressive in the spring when nesting. Not so bad now children wear helmets whilst on their bikes, but unpleasant to have them buzz extremely close when you venture outside or dare to check the mailbox. They certainly deter the little birds you’d rather to see.

The magpies here are noisy, violent thugs who kill other birds. They also attack my cat and that’s enough for me to dislike them intensely, though hate is going too far.

I like their distinctive markings.. great looking birds

Did anyone catch the Antiques Road Show last night? There was a scent bottle from China, painted with 30 magpies; it was really delicate work.
A magpie is a symbol of good luck in China apparently.

Caramme

The magpies here are noisy, violent thugs who kill other birds. They also attack my cat and that’s enough for me to dislike them intensely, though hate is going too far.

Do you dislike your cat because it too kills birds, and mice etc.?

I am fascinated by the relationship between humans and the animal kingdom - we have sauch skewed and inconsistent values hen it comes to this.

I do think that nature is cruel - animals in the wild are constantly in fear of what might pop up and eat them. I absolutely accept that this is how nature is constituted - but I am not obliged to like it!