Singing (British!) Magpie

It's a well-known fact that Australian magpies have a nice warbling song, but I've never heard a British magpie sing before!

This little chap was in our living room for close observation. He was brought to the wildlife hospital as an orphan in need of hand-raising, and had picked up a couple of bacterial and parasitic infections along the way. Unfortunately this had left him pretty weak and thin and having occasional seizures :(

Sadly despite good days, like these, where he was quite lively and liked to sing along with the TV or human conversation, he didn't make recover, and died not long after this video was made.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Wildlife
• rescue
• bird
• magpie

[thekaraokequeen]

what is he doing in a cage????!!!!!!!!

[CapnBlackbird]

@thekaraokequeen We got him from the wildlife hospital as an orphan. He was thin and had internal parasites and some sort of infection and was inside for observation, medication and plenty of good food and warmth. Had he been able to recover from that, we would have put him into an outside aviary and released him from there.

[CapnBlackbird]

These magpies can too. Sadly this one didn't live to develop his singing skills any more :( He was too ill and didn't recover :(

[venimeuxx]

i heard the professor talking in the background.

[drumknott]

I've heard where they tend to sing to their partner during mating season, but I'd never heard it for real! Too bad about him not recovering, though.

[althejew]

We used to get this happpen where i work if they are in for a long time freaks you out the first time they talk we had a crow,magpie and jackdaws that said hello amongst other things.Lovely

[verticalsmurf]

He sounds alot more scratcy than an Australian Magpie. Is it possible he is trying to mimick human speech? I know the Aussie ones can.