Please don't feed the magpies!

Published on 02 September 2025

Help the team at Edendale when you visit next.

We have some new residents; many, many Magpies and they love Edendale and our visitors. They will follow you, check out what you have, sing you a beautiful song and swoop in pretty quickly for any food left over or unattended.

So please do not feed them, don't leave food unattended and be sure to clean up after yourself if you visit the cafe.

Whilst feeding magpies might seem kind, it can cause serious problems:

It’s Bad for the Birds

• Human food doesn’t meet their nutritional needs
• They can become dependent and lose natural foraging habits
• It may encourage aggression or unhealthy behaviour

It Attracts Them to the Site

• Magpies linger in visitor areas and may disturb people and make a mess
• It disrupts our natural balance and local ecosystems

What You Can Do Instead

• Observe wildlife respectfully from a distance
• Educate others about the risks of feeding birds
• Dispose of food scraps responsibly

We thank you for your help and hope this is a seasonal issue, but other wild birds on site like Ducks and Indian Mynas can also be a problem, these measures should help better manage those issues also.