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I know corvids often pull the tails of other creatures, sometimes to harass them away from food. Sometimes just out of sheer mischief. When I worked at the NHU, I saw footage of corvids tweaking the tails of a perching kestrel, a sleeping fox and a wallaby drinking at a waterhole.
A local magpie seems to have taken it a stage further. It sauntered up to a group of pigeons feeding on spilled seed from my bird feeders, grabbed a tail feather and hung on. The pigeon flapped frantically to get away and the tail feather ripped out. The magpie then spent several minutes pecking away at the feather. Mainly at the root, so I guess it was getting little bits of flesh from inside the end of the shaft?
It then sneaked up on the pigeons again and tried to repeat the action, but this time the pigeon broke free without losing a feather.
The pigeons are now rather nervous of the magpies! :-)
A local magpie seems to have taken it a stage further. It sauntered up to a group of pigeons feeding on spilled seed from my bird feeders, grabbed a tail feather and hung on. The pigeon flapped frantically to get away and the tail feather ripped out. The magpie then spent several minutes pecking away at the feather. Mainly at the root, so I guess it was getting little bits of flesh from inside the end of the shaft?
It then sneaked up on the pigeons again and tried to repeat the action, but this time the pigeon broke free without losing a feather.
The pigeons are now rather nervous of the magpies! :-)
