The Department of Unexpected Interspecies Friendship is head over heels for corvids, the family that contains geniuses of the bird world including crows, ravens, magpies, jackdaws, jays, rooks and nutcrackers. Last week we met a little girl in Seattle who’s made such good friends with her neighborhood crows that they now bring her shiny presents. Today we venture down to Newport, Australia where a family has become such good friends with a magpie that she’s pretty much a part of the family now.
Meet Penguin the magpie, just a few weeks on when she was discovered by then-9-year-old Noah Bloom, who found her abandoned and ailing on the ground near the library in 2013. Noah took her home and Bloom family set to work carefully nursing Penguin back to health.
'We kept her because I felt confident that I had the time and knowledge to bring her up safely and healthily,' Mr Bloom told Daily Mail Australia. ‘My best friend is also a vet. Her diet was meticulously made so she had the right balance. It used to take me half an hour to mix it all together.'
Once she was all better the family allowed Penguin to fly free, but she kept coming back to visit, something she still does years later. She visits everyone, plays with the family’s 3 children, and just generally seems to enjoy the company of the entire Bloom family. Penguin also takes shelter in their home during bad weather or if other birds start to give her a hard time.
‘The kids love her like a pet dog and it’s just become so normal having her around,’ Mr Bloom said. ‘She likes to sing for us when she’s around the house and likes to fly onto your head or sit next to you and nibble on your ear. She also runs down the hallway in the morning sometimes to snuggle up in bed with us or the kids. For some reason, she loves toothpaste so when the boys are getting ready in the morning, she’s looking into their mouths.’
In the morning Penguin often waits for the kids to set out for school before flying off on her own to hunt. By the time the boys return home she’s perched in a tree outside the house, flapping her wings in excitement to greet them.
'She flaps her wings with excitement when the kids come home from school and loves to eat with us as well,' he said. 'She usually has some of our scraps but sometimes when we have spaghetti, she's cheeky and dives into to grab some of the meat off the table.'
Mr Bloom works as a professional photographer and has been documenting his family’s relationship with Penguin and sharing his photos on Instagram.
Visit the Daily Mail and Bored Panda for additional photos as well as a short video. And for still more photos of Penguin, follow Penguin the Magpie on Instagram.
[via Bored Panda and the Daily Mail]
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