there are bacteria that kill millions around the world, fluffy grizzly bears eat their own young,ants are the largest amimal biomass on earth (about 15%) and in some places they kill humans. The cycle of life can not continue without magpies. . . I actually am gratified that we have magpies here in montana. They are one of the ONLY birds that do not leave wholesale for the winter. They a lot of dead matter in the winter when only the coyotes are around, and they keep other bird numbers in check. BTW, they have low survivability here in glacier park, I allow them to nest around my place and on a good year there might be one or two new birds out of 4 nests.