By Tamara Hunter
As the impacts of climate change become ever more apparent, UWA researchers are monitoring how some of our favourite animals are - or aren't - coping with an increasingly hostile environment.
They're one of Australia's most iconic birds - playful, intelligent, and given to bursts of complex, joyful song.
Our suburban streets wouldn't be the same without magpies, but UWA research is showing these cheeky favourites are struggling to cope with human-induced stressors that could jeopardise their future survival.
Among the threats are noisy urban environments which interfere with magpie communication, and heatwaves that kill offspring and sap the energy of birds that would otherwise be foraging, being social, or looking after their babies.
Evolutionary biologist Professor Mandy Ridley spent years studying birds in the arid environment of the Kalahari Desert before moving to UWA in 2012 and becoming entranced by the resident magpies.
"They're investing so much energy in thermoregulating that they're not able to invest much brain power into what's going on around them anymore."
Professor Mandy Ridley
Her fascination - combined with decades of experience studying cooperation and communication in bird societies - has led to a program of research which is improving our knowledge of magpie cognition, behaviour and, more recently, their ability to adapt to climate change and man-made noise.
"Magpies are so familiar and symbolic for Australians, and because they're often seen in urban environments people see them as a species that is common and successful," Professor Ridley says.
"But what we're seeing in our research is that the urban environment is having a really big effect on them - they're struggling with both heat and noise.
"As larger-bodied birds magpies are much more vulnerable to heat than smaller birds, which heat up faster but can also cool down faster.
Image: Magpie nestlings with bills gaping and at edge of nest to offset heat stress. Image credit: Kito Ridley.
"When we started seeing a hundred per cent loss of some magpie reproductive attempts during heat, I realised we really needed to measure this carefully."
Professor Ridley and recent UWA PhD graduate Dr Grace Blackburn use non-invasive techniques to monitor 15 magpie groups around Perth. They've found magpie cognition declines significantly under heat stress, with the birds less able to complete associated learning tasks in heat compared to normal conditions.
"They fall off a cliff in terms of cognition, and they're also less responsive to predators," Professor Ridley says.
"They're investing so much energy in thermoregulating that they're not able to invest much brain power into what's going on around them anymore.
Image: Professor Mandy Ridley with two chatty magpies. Image credit: Jarryd Gardner.
"The other thing we found is when it gets very hot the birds face a tough decision over their own survival versus that of their young, and we tend to get some abandoning of babies."
Another major challenge is anthropogenic, or human-induced noise, with the noise associated with urban environments noticeably affecting magpie communication and behaviour.
"Being heard and understood is really important for a species that passes a lot of information this way, especially for mate selection and communicating warnings," Professor Ridley says.
"But what we found was when there was a lot of noise, birds simply weren't calling. They were waiting for the noise to stop before communicating - but what that means is that in really noisy areas, they may not be communicating things that urgently need to be communicated."
That includes predator alarms, with the team finding magpies were less likely to notice warnings from other birds when there was competing noise - creating a survival risk.
"We're also seeing that when there's anthropogenic noise around, the magpies forage less and catch less food," Professor Ridley says.
She says it's important to recognise that animals such as magpies aren't just coping with one challenge.
"While most research tends to look at one stressor at a time, we're looking at multiple stressors because this is the reality the birds face.
"When we look at the combined impact of heat and noise - both of which are increasing in cities - we think we do have a problem with magpies in urban environments, and that we won't see them as much anymore in the future."
While that news is bleak, Professor Ridley says understanding these kinds of impacts on magpies' longevity, reproductive success and responsiveness to predators can help identify conservation priorities and focus attention on ways to help.
She points to simple things urban planners and householders can do - like creating microsite refuges that offer magpies and other animals shade, safe watering points and a haven from noise.
"Good urban planning in our parks can help reduce that urban heat island effect quite a lot and allow our wildlife to persist in these areas," she says.
"We need to plan in a way that provides a good amount of canopy and under-canopy that birds can use as thermal refuges. They need enough shade, but also elevated watering points that can't be accessed by cats and dogs.
"Importantly, microsites like these can also buffer birds from big noise events in the city, like planes, buses and construction."
Read the full issue of the Summer 2025 edition of Uniview [Accessible PDF 13MB] .
