{"id":72939,"date":"2025-08-10T19:04:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T19:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/72939\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T19:04:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T19:04:07","slug":"woman-makes-owl-to-scare-magpies-accidentally-invents-new-bird-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/72939\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman Makes Owl To Scare Magpies, Accidentally Invents New Bird Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Woman Makes Owl To Scare Magpies, Accidentally Invents New Bird Religion<\/a> originally appeared on PetHelpful<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In what might be the most unintentionally hilarious DIY fail of the year, a woman\u2019s attempt to scare away the magpies outside her home with a handmade, paper mache owl turned into an unexpected bird-worshipping ceremony.<\/p>\n

TikTok user sarahjane72 shared the video, capturing the moment local magpies gathered around her homemade \u201cowl deterrent\u201d, and appeared to revere it as some sort of glowing green eyed, feathered deity.<\/p>\n

Then, they engaged in what appeared to be a spooky ceremony of some sort which just makes me laugh harder the more times I watch it!<\/p>\n

Heeeeellllpppp! It’s so funny!!! Those magpies look so reverent! Are they like… bowing? OMG. Too much!<\/p>\n

Autumn_Flowers said, \u2018I think they have mistaken it for a dead magpie and are upset\u2019 while Leftovercheese lamented that, \u201cEveryone but me is in a cult these days.\u201d Another is like me: ‘I have tears running down my face.’ LOLOL!<\/p>\n

Do Owls Really Scare Magpies?\"A<\/p>\n

A large Barred Owl in a tree.Shutterstock &sol; Raymond J Carter<\/p>\n

Owls are natural predators of many smaller bird species, including magpies. Their presence<\/a> usually serves as a visual deterrent, warning other birds to stay away from the area.<\/p>\n

Science backs it up<\/a>\u2013sometimes. That\u2019s why humans have been propping fake owls up everywhere from gardens to rooftops for years.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the catch: Birds: especially magpies<\/a>, are not dumb. Experts warn that if you leave a fake owl sitting still, they will quickly figure out it\u2019s a total fraud.\u00a0It’s recommended to regularly move the decoys<\/a> or rotate them in order to maintain their effectiveness.<\/p>\n

Did Sarah’s magpies believe her ruse for a minute? Errr, oh no. I’m laughing again as I’m picturing their weird little ceremony.<\/p>\n

Related: Turkey’s Cute Little Waddle on Way to Score ‘Cheez-Its’ Couldn’t Be More Precious<\/a><\/p>\n

I don’t think they bought into it. What did Sarah\u2019s magpies do? They skipped the fear part, formed a cult, and left the internet howling. The owl is their leader now. You can\u2019t fight nature, especially when it decides to be hilarious.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not adept at these things, but I just might take a shot at crafting my own bird leader. Perhaps I\u2019ll shoot for a demigod to start.<\/p>\n

Woman Makes Owl To Scare Magpies, Accidentally Invents New Bird Religion<\/a> first appeared on PetHelpful on Aug 10, 2025<\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by PetHelpful<\/a> on Aug 10, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Woman Makes Owl To Scare Magpies, Accidentally Invents New Bird Religion originally appeared on PetHelpful. In what might…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[20008,79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-72939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-barred-owl","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}