Is it legal to trap magpies in my garden?

The licence “To kill or take certain birds for the conservation of wild birds” allows “authorised persons” the use of Larsen traps and other methods of control. We therefore believe that trapping magpies in your garden to protect other nesting birds is perfectly legal.

 No matter where you live, whether in the country or in the city, you may well have noted a seemingly never ending rise in the population of Magpies.  While in balance, these clever and attractive birds may offer a welcome and interesting addition to our local biodiversity, their ability to exploit human changes to the environment has led them to become so successful that they now represent a potential threat to other species.  

Whilst the laws and regulations surrounding the trapping of pest birds varies in each of the UK countries and is reasonably complex, with a little care it is perfectly possible to trap magpies within the law, even in a garden situation.

Very briefly, the law starts from the stance that all birds are protected, unless a specific permission to take a species is made.  In the case of Magpies ( and some other pest birds) the General Licenses are issued by each of the “Competent Authorities” (Government agencies) every year, and specify the reason that control may be undertaken, the terms and conditions of the licence, the species that can be controlled and the methods of control allowed you can use.  

By definition you do not need to apply or pay for general licences, but you are required by law to abide by their terms and conditions. They are open to everyone who could be deemed as “authorised” (Unless you have been specifically excluded - often following a wildlife crime conviction), but you do need to understand enough to know that what you are doing and why you are doing it, meets the criteria and complies with the regulations. General licences are subject to strict conditions, and abuse of them or failure to comply with the conditions could constitute an offence. 

Links to the different General Licenses for 2016

In short,  to answer the question at the top, yes, it is possible to control Magpies in a garden setting in a legal way, although how you do this will vary slightly depending on where you live.  

One of the easiest ways to trap Magpies discretely in a garden is the use of  Larsen traps, ( **click here for our article on what is a larsen trap**) and we have several articles explaining how to to trap magpies to help you get started using them as well as some tips on using Larsen traps for the more advanced users.

If you have any specific questions or feedback, please let us know in the comments below.