Introduction:
While all these events did actually occur they are written with a little of the author's imagination.

I'm sure only half of Poppy believes he's a Magpie but more than anything I think he wants to be human. One moment he is Mr Independent, the next he is quite content to lie back in the palm of my hand to have his tummy tickled while he plays with my fingers with his beak and feet. When I go into the aviary to give him his brekky and fresh water, he has this habit of landing on my head. Not only are his claws very sharp, which he really isn't that concerned about, his beak, even though in his mind he is being very gentle, rifles through your hair and he takes great delight in giving the occasional tug to see what reaction he gets.
He soon becomes bored when he realizes he hasn't obtained a response he thought it would illicit so he jumps on your shoulder instead. He puts his beak, which is quite cold, I might add, down the back of your neck to see if you're wearing a necklace or some form of ornamentation that he can choke you with. Having found his target he is so excited he pokes his entire head down your sweatshirt. You try hard to extricate him and find yourself confronted with a rather fluffy bottom pointing skyward. Muffled squawks of protest at being interrupted from his game emit from under your sweatshirt. When you finally get him out, usually upside down, you're faced with a somewhat ruffled and annoyed Magpie!
One tends to wilt from that angry glare. You desperately think of a strategy that will distract him and quickly look around the aviary, you spot a large leaf, one of his favourite toys. His other toys include twigs and gum nuts which he spends hours poking through the mesh then looks expectantly at me to see if I'll pick them up and poke them back. But I digress – having picked up the leaf and presenting it to him, his eye's light up and the game is on! Me at one end, Poppy on the other, he tugs, I tug and so it goes on until I give up and he struts triumphantly with said leaf in his beak and once again he is supreme champion of the tug-of-leaf competition! Anyone watching would have thought that he'd won gold at the Olympics!
To be fair though, Poppy would have to be one of the most gentle little Magpies I've had in care.

Update:
Poppy was grouped into a new family of Magpies (he was rejected by his own) and has been released back into the wild.