Mount Gambier riding school owners help ‘Woddle Woddle’ the magpie in heartwarming video

When these two animal lovers found a curious magpie with wire wrapped around its neck, they hatched a plan to help it. Watch the video.

Owners of a Mount Gambier riding school have rescued a magpie with wire wrapped around its neck, sharing how they bonded with it before ‘Operation: Remove Wire’ began.

When Marie Matter and her husband Noe first noticed one of the magpies that live near their Glenburnie property had something wrapped around its neck, they knew they had to help.

“We own a classical dressage riding school in Mount Gambier, we had started feeding a family of magpies that live by us and initially thought the smaller magpie was carrying the electrical wire in its mouth until the next day we noticed it was around its neck,” Ms Matter said.

Screengrabs from the Matters’ TikTok.

Screengrabs from the Matters’ TikTok.

“So we decided to see if we could build a bond with the magpie and maybe then it would let us help it.”

On day one of the rescue mission Ms Matter spent hours outside with the bird “conditioning” it to understand she meant it no harm.

On day two she offered it food near her home’s front door. She said that day the little bird was actually waiting for her outside, chortling.

Screengrabs from the Matters’ TikTok.

Screengrabs from the Matters’ TikTok.

The third day, the couple were surprised when the magpie – who they’d affectionately named Woddle Woddle – hopped into their house for a snack.

“Our cat came up to sniff him so he flew into our windows and got stuck next to our bookshelves and we knew this was our moment to help,” Ms Matter said.

“We grabbed a towel and Operation: ‘Remove Wire’ began.”

The Matters realised the wire was wrapped twice tightly around the bird’s neck, which would have likely killed it eventually.

Screengrabs from the Matters’ TikTok.

Screengrabs from the Matters’ TikTok.

Using a sharpie as a decoy for the bird to bite on instead of Ms Matter’s fingers, she gently loosened the wire from around Woddle Woddle’s neck until it came off entirely.

“After we removed the wire they didn’t fly too far away – it was like they were thanking us for our help,” she said.

“Over the following days the magpie has been back waiting at our front door for us to wake up in the morning.”

Ms Matter said when Woddle Woddle started to bond, she began videoing the experience.

She posted a video documenting ‘Operation: Remove Wire’ to their riding school’s TikTok page @australianbaroqueriding where it has amassed more than 40,000 views in a few days.

Ms Matter said they were careful to remove the wire as safely as and in the least stressful way for the bird as possible.

The full four-minute video can be seen here.

Originally published as Mount Gambier riding school owners help ‘Woddle Woddle’ the magpie in heartwarming video