![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/black-billed-magpie-8063-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"black-billed-magpie-8063-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nThere’s a price to be paid if you shirk your familial duties during nesting season.<\/p>\n
I’ve been watching a pair of nesting Black-billed Magpies for much of the spring. While the female is incubating eggs she’s fed by her mate so when she’s hungry she typically comes out of the nest and perches on one particular sagebrush fairly close to the nest bush and waits for the male to bring food to her. While she’s there she sometimes calls out to her mate and exhibits begging behavior while he’s foraging for food, either nearby or far away.<\/p>\n
At times she doesn’t seem to have much patience while she’s waiting to be fed.<\/p>\n
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1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Two weeks ago she waited on the sagebrush for longer than usual while she watched her mate foraging for food nearby. Soon her calling became more insistent and her begging behavior more animated. When those antics achieved no results she took off, still calling as she launched, and headed straight for him on the ground perhaps 75′ in front of her.<\/p>\n It seemed obvious to me that she’d run out of patience.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Within about three seconds she appeared to have him pinned to the ground as she was giving him a piece of her mind.<\/p>\n As far as I could tell he had no food to give her but for a moment or two all I could see was flailing wings and tails in the grass so it’s possible that he had some tidbit inside his bill that she ended up with. After a few moments of apparent disagreement she returned to her “waiting perch” with a noticeably calmer demeanor. Apparently her point had been made.<\/p>\n But as an observer I was left with a strong impression. There’s a price to be paid if you shirk your familial duties to the point of trying the patience of your hungry mate.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There’s a price to be paid if you shirk your familial duties during nesting season. (2 photos)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/black-billed-magpie-8076-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"black-billed-magpie-8076-ron-dudley\\"")
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