Who needs Netflix when you have the great outdoors? Not this couple in Alaska, who peered out their window in Eagle River to witness nature's entertainment: A young moose had settled into their backyard for a nice midday nap when a pesky magpie bird decided it was playtime instead. Naturally, homeowner Elly Frey grabbed her phone to record the action.
In Frey's video, the magpie flutters in the moose's face and up its back as the moose grows agitated. The moose changes positions to try to get away from the bird, but the bird follows anyway. It flies around the moose front to back, jumps on it, then swoops into a tree beyond reach when the moose reacts.
Frey was exercising in her home when her husband came in and asked if she had looked outside recently. She hadn't, and he directed her toward the window, where their cat, Mia, was already engrossed in the scene. Then she saw why: A tiny black-and-white magpie bird was bullying a juvenile moose.
Elly Frey
"It just kept going on, so I went and got my phone and started videoing it," Frey told local news channel KTUU-TV. "He was jumping on the moose's back. He was flying around his face. He was jumping on the ground right in front of him and then running off. He was just being really naughty."
The magpie seemed to enjoy the interaction, while the moose did not.
"The moose was just trying to relax. I think he was very annoyed," Frey said. "The moose was kind of getting irritated. You could that he was starting to chase the magpie a little bit. The magpie kept coming and jumping on his back, jumping on his back over and over again. I'd like to think that they are kind of teenagers of the birds and they just mess with other animals all the time."
The frolicking interaction continued for about half an hour, Frey said. At one point, a mother moose came up to the yard to check on the young moose. It's unclear if the magpie pestered Mama, too.
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