Babblers Love The Magpies

The Babblers are vulnerable to attacks from larger predatory birds like hawks and eagles. While they would fly off at the slightest hint of disturbance, we noticed that they seemed to like hanging around the magpies. 

When they were still young birds, around the age of eighteen months or so, we would often find Maggie the magpie along with his adopted sisters Cindy and Tammie watch over the babblers. Tammie in particular loved to spend her afternoons walking in their midst. She would look like a sergeant-major, ordering them about telling which one to go where, and they looked absolutely happy to follow her instructions. The babblers loved being around the magpies.

A few months ago, a hawk chased one of the babblers and they all flew out of the fields straight to the trees where the magpies were sitting and perched themselves close to them. The magpies made a racket and chased the hawk away.  The magpies like protecting the babblers.

You can read more about the babblers and see a slideshow in the Birds I View gallery of this website under Grey-crowned Babblers