Surviving swooping season
Source: EHP QLD and other various articles
Image: Kylie Goldsmith
September heralds the start of ‘magpie swooping season’. It’s commonplace for some of us to recall the blur of wings and the click of that beak with a strange level of nostalgia, but it is sobering to realise that some of these attacks cause real damage and injury. So what is going on with these otherwise favourite Aussie icons?
A small but conspicuous proportion of magpies throughout the country begin to attack otherwise innocent people. This protective group often have a preference for certain types of ‘targets’ like pedestrians and cyclists.
A magpie will only defend its nest within a ‘defence zone’. For pedestrians, this is usually an area within 110m and for cyclists it is 150m.
Almost all swoops on people are carried out by male magpies defending their eggs and chicks, which are in the nest for about six to eight weeks between July and November.
Magpies often become more aggressive as the chicks become older, but swooping usually stops once the young have left the nest.
A magpie’s defensive behaviour can range from a non-contact swoop with or without beak snapping, through to pecking, dive-bombing and sometimes front-on attacks from the ground.
A few attacks are more serious leading to bloodied ears and cheeks or even eye injury. The risk of eye injury means all magpie attacks need to be taken seriously.
Being so common and virtually omnipresent in Australia, this phenomenon has led to the development of lots of counter-measures including:
- Adding eyes on the back of your hat (or an ice cream container).
- Madly running while waving a stick.
- Adding a variety of decoration to your bike helmet such as cable ties.
Such tactics can be roughly placed into one of three categories:
- Attempts to change the magpies’ behaviour (futile).
- Protection of the head by any means (well worth trying).
- Avoiding the “attack zone” (probably your best bet).
Several councils and government agencies have set up ‘magpie alert’ sites where you can stay up to date with local attacks to ensure you are kept informed of danger zones.
Additionally, there is a user generated site called Magpie Alert which covers attacks across the nation while also entertaining you with individual stories – check it out here.
