Most probably not. So the call to arms by the editors of Sporting Shooter is going to achieve very little. The magazine is offering a £500 prize to the person who kills the most magpies between now and the end of July on the excuse that our beloved songbird populations are being destroyed by the black and white birds.
"The magpie is simply a scapegoat," says Andre Farrar, a spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
The number of songbirds such as sparrows, starlings, and skylarks in Britain has indeed declined by more than half over the past 25 years. In contrast, magpie numbers have risen to nearly 1.3m, partly because of a lack of gamekeeping after the second world war and partly because the birds have become more attuned to suburban living, increasing their numbers in towns and cities. "Because they're visible birds, it's a very perceptible increase," says Farrar.
There is no doubt magpies are killing other birds - they are predators after all and eating other birds' eggs and young comes naturally. But none of this adds up to a smoking gun. "It is unfortunate for the magpie's own PR that it does it rather publicly and rather obviously that attracts attention to it."
Whether the magpie's predatory instinct is actually having adverse effects on songbird populations is doubtful. Indeed, the real reasons for the declines of songbirds in Britain are many and varied.
"Take the example of skylarks, a ground-nesting bird that could potentially be vulnerable to magpie predation," says Farrar. "The reason for decline of skylarks is the switch from spring-sown to winter-sown cereals, so the crop is too high for the birds to nest in. So they don't produce enough young, so their population falls. The solution is measures to introduce spaces within the crop where the birds could find food."
In fact, since the second world war, the way that 70% of Britain's land surface is managed has changed, erasing habitats and meaning that many native birds have found it difficult to cope.