Is there a scientific basis for crows to report bad news and magpies to report good news?

Magpie is a common bird, which often haunts trees, roofs and crops around villages or cities at the foot of the mountain. In the early morning, they often fly to open fields and vegetable gardens in pairs or groups to feed. They are omnivorous birds.

According to the survey of scientists in Nanjing and Hunan, more than 80% of magpies' food a year is insects that harm crops; Such as grasshoppers, crickets, scarab headlands, moth larvae and pine caterpillars. Among them, 65,438+05% are cereals and plant seeds, and they also eat birds, snails, melons and weeds. So magpies are good for human beings. Hard-working farmers, working in the fields in the morning, fell in love with magpies when they saw them jumping and chasing pests in pairs on the fields and grasslands without avoiding humans. Their loud and monotonous songs were also praised as good omen. There is a saying in the ancient book "Miscellanies of Xijing", which must be the source of the legend that magpies will report good news.

As for crows, like magpies, they belong to passeriformes and are also common birds in plains, agricultural areas, villages and urban forests.

During the day, they often flock in groups of 25, foraging in farmland, grass beaches and garbage dumps beside roads. They eat a wide range of food, and some species prefer carrion. They have different proportions of food at different times. For example, the breeding season and insect peak in spring and summer, the staple food crickets, locusts, scarab headlands and Lepidoptera insects are beneficial to crop growth. When sowing in spring and harvesting in autumn, they go to the fields to dig for grain seeds and seedlings and the grain left by the ridge road, which is not very harmful. Others eat animal and plant impurities, which is also conducive to cleaning. But people hear its harsh and monotonous chirping, see its black feathers, and often hover around rotten things or make noise on trees, giving people an unpleasant feeling, so they regard it as an ominous bird. In fact, if it can be repelled in spring sowing, it can be regarded as an insect-eating bird from its annual feeding habits.

Therefore, magpies bring good news and crows cause trouble, which are all folk superstitions and legends, and there is no scientific basis.