One of nature’s more fascinating and  charming aspects is displayed when completely  different species interact in ways that are mutually beneficial; it’s called symbiosis.

We’ve all seen David Attenborough describe those  little cleaner fish, that peck fungus off killer sharks; and the birds that pick fleas from gazelles in Africa.

But as I discovered one early  UK morning in November, and as these photographs of fallow deer and magpies show, you don’t need to travel beyond suburban Surrey to see similar behaviour.

I’ve not had the time to go overboard researching this convenient pairing, but did find this from an edition of ‘The Condor’ published in 1998:

‘Ectoparasite removal was observed as the cause for Black-billed Magpies’ (Pica pica) pecking on fallow deer (Dama dama). It was also observed that deer that were sitting were preferred by the magpies over deer that were standing. The magpies also seemed to prefer adult males over adult females or calves. The ectoparasitic interaction may be benefiting birds because ectoparasites are one of their sources of food. However, its benefit to the fallow deer has yet to be investigated.’

So the magpies are in it for the munchy ectoparasites – can’t blame them; but what do the deer get out of the deal – I’m guessing a lot less itching?

And so much for the magpie’s preference for seated deer.   What do you think?