![\"Magpies](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775254818_358_scale;webp=auto;jpeg_quality=60.jpg\")
Aileen Danielle<\/p>\nThree years ago, shortly after Aileen Danielle moved into her apartment in Queensland, Australia, she noticed a pair of magpies nesting in a tree nearby. Knowing these native birds can be territorial, often swooping at passersby, Aileen decided to try to earn their trust.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was told that if you feed the magpies, they will recognize you as not being a threat,\u201d Aileen told The Dodo. \u201cSo when I moved in, I decided to test the theory!\u201d<\/p>\n
Aileen began to leave little piles of mealworms for the birds on the grass out front.<\/p>\n
Aileen Danielle<\/p>\n
Since feeding the magpies, Aileen never once got swooped at. But that show of kindness did more than just prove she wasn\u2019t a threat. It endeared her to them as a friend.<\/p>\n
Before long, the two nesting magpies started bringing along their recently fledged son to share in Aileen\u2019s offerings.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when she noticed something wasn\u2019t quite right about him.<\/p>\n
The younger magpie was born with a crooked beak. Rather than open and shut symmetrically as it should, this bird\u2019s beak was offset, like a pair of scissors.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it may make foraging a bit of a challenge for him,\u201d Aileen said.<\/p>\n Aileen continued to feed the feathered family over the following months. But then something tragic happened. The crooked-beaked magpie\u2019s father was hit by a car and died. After that, his mother flew away and never returned. Now, Aileen was his only friend \u2014 a role she hasn\u2019t taken lightly<\/p>\n Just about every morning now, as Aileen steps out of her home to head off to work, the crooked-beaked bird rushes to greet her. She provides him with snacks to fill his belly, supplementing the food he struggles to collect on his own.<\/p>\n And in return, the magpie gives Aileen the sweetest reward.<\/p>\n \u201cHe always sings the same song to me,\u201d Aileen said. “He definitely has a call for me.”<\/p>\n Aileen doesn\u2019t always provide the magpie with food to ensure that he doesn\u2019t stop trying to search for it on his own. But having a friend in Aileen has come as something of a lifeline.<\/p>\n \u201cI can tell he\u2019s very grateful for the food,\u201d she said. \u201cI see him struggling to forage.\u201d<\/p>\n Magpies are considered some of the world\u2019s smartest animals<\/a>, exhibiting social intelligence and complex problem-solving skills. They also recognize human faces and remember who has been kind or mean to them.<\/p>\n The crooked-beaked bird no doubt genuinely views Aileen as a trusted friend.<\/p>\n What began as a simple gesture toward a family of magpies three years ago has only continued to blossom since \u2014 as has Aileen\u2019s appreciation for animals like them with each morning visit from her feathered friend.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, [it\u2019s] one of the highlights of my day,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775254819_109_scale;webp=auto;jpeg_quality=60.jpg\")
Aileen Danielle<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775254819_922_scale;webp=auto;jpeg_quality=60.jpg\")
Aileen Danielle<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775254820_714_scale;webp=auto;jpeg_quality=60.jpg\")
Aileen Danielle<\/p>\n![\"Wild](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775254820_80_flatten;crop;webp=auto;jpeg_quality=60.jpg\")
<\/a>Wild Bird Shows Up At Woman’s House And Demands To Be Let In\u201cShe was so happy and relieved.\u201d <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three years ago, shortly after Aileen Danielle moved into her apartment in Queensland, Australia, she noticed a pair…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[986,15638,1285,61,60,169944,82,1284,15034,1282,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-380658","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-birds","10":"tag-daily-dodo","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-magpies","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-standard","16":"tag-stephen-messenger","17":"tag-the-dodo","18":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}