Cheeky

I mean the bird, not the boy (:
These birds are usually not my favourites. Unlike the placid British magpie, these ones were introduced from Australia and can be quite vicious. They are very defensive parents and will attack people by diving at their heads. They have a very distinctive call, immortalised by Dennis Glover's poem as 'Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle'!

This magpie shocked me when it sprang out of the bushes on my way to breakfast, (the ones of my childhood were considered fearsome) but I soon learned that this one had imprinted on humans and was in fact very friendly. Another camper told me that it had joined him for lunch on his deckchair, then afterwards basked in the sun and rolled over to have his belly scratched. Dave made friends by entertaining it with his watch, and later it flew over my head benignly and proceeded to watch me prepare dinner. So there is such a thing as a nice magpie!