Magpies follow Snake bite spike in Queensland hospitalises nine in a day

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Come up to Toowoomba next September Ken and I'll get you swooped by a magpie in 2 minutes flat, my local 'pies' won't look the other way just because you're 75. Hehe. We can't have you in your mid seventies never having experienced one of this country's greatest rights of passage lol.

 

[Yellowtail]

Come up to Toowoomba next September Ken and I'll get you swooped by a magpie in 2 minutes flat, my local 'pies' won't look the other way just because you're 75. Hehe. We can't have you in your mid seventies never having experienced one of this country's greatest rights of passage lol.

Mate I've always lived in bushy areas full of magpies and while neighbours got swooped and they even had warning photos of key offenders in a local park they never swoop me, I'm convinced it's body language and the way you move, they don't see me as a threat, possibly the same with snakes.

 

[Bl69aze]

as far as i know, magpies dont like people wearing hats... so i keep the hats off

 

[Yellowtail]

as far as i know, magpies dont like people wearing hats... so i keep the hats off

I have a theory that they particularly don't like sun glasses, I never wear them.

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

That can't be true, I'm ALWAYS wearing a hat and sunglasses. Hats and sunglasses aside, they will attack you if you're riding a bike. Jump on a bike and come for a leisurely cycle with me around Smithfield Park in Toowoomba and I guarantee you'll get pegged by magpies. I filmed myself getting nailed by the notorious Smithfield Park Magpies on September 16th this year and sent it to the local newspaper and the council erected signs immediately as my filming came a day after an elderly lady who lives opposite the Smithfield Park witnessed the magpies attacking her young grandchildren and called the paper. The same Smithfield Park Magpies never swooped me once when walking my Jack Russell Terriers on the exact same course but as soon as I got on the bike they would chase me for as far as 2 blocks.
Great fun.

 

[Bl69aze]

I had one a few years ago swoop me and I karate chopped it mid air

Magpies and crows like shiny things

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

I had one a few years ago swoop me and I karate chopped it mid air

Magpies and crows like shiny things

I had one swoop me in 2012 while walking the dogs then it made the stupid mistake of coming back for a second dig and swooping one of my Jack Russell's and it got caught and he rag-dolled the s*** out of it. I yelled for Alaska to *drop it* which he immediately did, it jumped up and flew off and in the following weeks it sat in the tree and watched us walk past and never swooped us again. Hehe

 

[GBWhite]

We get pretty used to Magies around here. There's hardly a tree in the streets or backyards of homes that doesn't house a family. Even the local Junior and Senior Rugby League Clubs are known as the Bellingen Magpies.

Magpies are extremely smart birds and they have the ability to recognize faces and once they become used to people who live around the area they nest and realize that a particular person is no threat they won't swoop them. It's the males who swoop and they do it to protect their chicks. The swooping usually only last from Spring to mid summer for the period that each pair are nesting, (nesting goes for about 5 - 6). They attack people on bikes because they see people on bikes as a large, fast moving predatory animals, so their instinct is to swoop down and give it (the assumed predator) a little hurry on. When the rider increases speed and moves away the bird assumes it has done the right thing and been successful in protecting the chicks because the "predator" has been moved along in a hurry and as such will continue to swoop people on bikes that venture into their area. They are also known to do the same thing with people pushing prams. So if you don't want to get swooped...don't ride bikes around where they nest.....simples

On another note, I read that article about the snake bites prior to it being posted and wrote it off as a typical media story that doesn't support any real purpose other than to create more fear mongering toward snakes. The article doesn't state exactly what species of snake(s) bit each individual. So all things considered even though each person did the right thing and sought medical attention some of these bites may have come from non-venomous snakes. Interesting enough it also doesn't mention the circumstances surrounding each incident.

 

[Sdaji]

I've never been swooped by a magpie either, even when walking around where magpies swoop everyone. There seems to be something about some people that keeps magpies away.

OP: If something routinely happens, it's the reality of the world. If you are mystified as to why it happens, it just means you fail to understand something about the world. You are just one person, and obviously someone interested in snakes, very aware of them, keep to keep an eye out for them, etc. Most people never get bitten by a snake, including farmers, avid bushwalkers, avid snake killers etc. But, there are tens of millions of people in Australia, so while it is rare per capita, out of tens of millions of people, a reasonable total number get bitten. Most people aren't obsessed with snakes like we are, the aren't aware of where snakes are likely to be and they usually won't spot snakes in plain view where we will.

 

[dragonlover1]

Okay I have a different theory on swooping magpies,the aggressive ones live in big trees isolated from other trees,
many years ago I worked on an army base and there were 2 workshops hundreds of metres apart with 1 big tree at each end of the path and anyone who needed to walk from 1 to the other was swooped, there were many protection methods used,icecream bucket hats with eyes , sunglasses on backwards etc.But what really worked was holding a stick above your head, if they think you're a tree they don't attack, so we had a supply of sticks at each end of the path and no more attacks.

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Magpies are just cowards, they only ever hit you from behind, the stick above the head method does work, I've used it many times myself, it doesn't make you look like a tree, they're more intelligent than that, they just won't peg you if it looks like you're prepared for it and will counter attack.

 

[Bl69aze]

Just swing with a stick violently if you’re in their territory

 

[Yellowtail]

I still think it's just body language, if you don't look like a threat they leave you alone, that means moving quietly, smoothly, arms down, head looking down. Hard to do on a bike but that's different.

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

I still think it's just body language, if you don't look like a threat they leave you alone, that means moving quietly, smoothly, arms down, head looking down. Hard to do on a bike but that's different.

I think it's more to do with the individual magpies. Some are a lot more assertive than others. I can walk by many magpies and their territories in the height of the breeding season and not even get looked at but the Smithfield Park pies up here have a reputation and they uphold it well. Every September. And they do not discriminate according to an individuals appearance or body language. If it moves, they want a piece of it.

 

[Ella C]

Haha, this thread reminded me of this video

 

[dragonlover1]

I think it's more to do with the individual magpies. Some are a lot more assertive than others. I can walk by many magpies and their territories in the height of the breeding season and not even get looked at i

This part of your post I agree with ,I don't know about some areas being more aggressive than some.There are aggressive maggies everywhere, same as there are sedate ones; I used to have a pair watching me garden looking for me to expose a worm or 2
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Just swing with a stick violently if you’re in their territory

You don't need to swing your stick violently, just hold it above your head and you will be safe

 

[Sdaji]

Magpies are just cowards, they only ever hit you from behind, the stick above the head method does work, I've used it many times myself, it doesn't make you look like a tree, they're more intelligent than that, they just won't peg you if it looks like you're prepared for it and will counter attack.

If an animal making an unprovoked physical attack against the world's most dangerous species literally about a hundred times its size is a coward, I'd hate to meet an animal you'd consider ferocious and brave!
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I think it's more to do with the individual magpies. Some are a lot more assertive than others. I can walk by many magpies and their territories in the height of the breeding season and not even get looked at but the Smithfield Park pies up here have a reputation and they uphold it well. Every September. And they do not discriminate according to an individuals appearance or body language. If it moves, they want a piece of it.

They definitely discriminate against different people. I have literally never been swooped by a magpie despite spending about 35 years living among them and being the kind of person always getting out and about in areas where they swoop people. In places where there are particularly nasty magpies always swooping people, and everyone says don't go there or you'll get swooped, and almost everyone who walks there gets swooped, they leave me alone. No idea why, but they always have. I've met other people like it. It makes sense that they'd swoop some people more than others, but I obviously have a fairly extreme case of whatever characteristics they don't swoop (or a lack of whatever triggers them to swoop).

 

[Yellowtail]

It is good to know I am not the only one who never gets swooped, they are obviously very intelligent and recognize people who like them

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Plenty of magpie sized animals and smaller winged critters will face up to and confront a human threat head on and not just attack from behind. I'd therefore consider paper wasps, hornets, bees extremely brave. Yes they're only insects with tiny little brains, yes they can swarm but they do also attack solo, so in comparison, magpies are still cowards as they're intelligent enough to assess an individual and the risks they pose, pass judgement as to whether an individual is a threat or not and decide whether or not to launch an attack... with that intelligence and ability to assess a situation - maximise their offense and minimise the risk of a retaliation and decide to deliberately attack from behind - that is the very essence of what makes a coward a coward. If you punch someone from behind, it's a "coward punch".

Also, (the aggressive assertive ones) they will not discrininate, a few years back now a toddler that was no threat to the pies or their nest lost an eye in Toowoomba. Also this past season I witnessed small children aged 4-7 getting smashed by the Smithfield Park Magpies, an elderly couple in their 80's, myself, several teenagers and folks in their twenties. The aggro ones don't care, they don't discriminate. Again, plenty of magpies DO discriminate and will only swoop certain individuals they perceive as a threat while accepting food from others BUT plenty don't. My 5km daily walking/cycling commute takes me through the territories of no less than a dozen pairs of magpies and I've been taking this trek for 15 years... 3 males from 3 of those pairs will hammer me and every other passer by every time during Sept-Oct without fail, a 4th is 50/50 depending on what mood it's in and the rest just sit and watch and have never looked like swooping me. So, make of that what you will. 15 years of watching the local pies I can conclude that many do discriminate and some don't. The problem ones can and do actually get "removed" by council up here.

This is how 7/10 magpies react to me in Sept-Oct... Nothing, just watch me and the dogs walk by, non issue...

Head over to the rough side of town and through Smithfield park and all bets are off. My helmet looks like it's been shot 2 dozen times by an air rifle.

I'm an animal and bird lover, I have several of my own parrots and the ability to "whisper" completely wild birds to come and take mealworms from my hands like this spangled drongo.

I've got another photo somewhere of a heron sitting on my outstretched arm.

I'm no threat to any flying creature except mosquitoes and Indian mynas. So regardless of an individual's appearance or body language, SOME magpies are just over the top assertive and do not discriminate between any individuals whatsoever.

 

[Sdaji]

Haha! That's hilarious! The only examples of brave animals you can come up with are literally mindless insects We obviously have differing views on cowardice. It's true, most life forms are cowardly by nature, humans included, but Magpies are unusually brave.

You citing examples of particular individuals being attacked doesn't mean there aren't other individuals which don't get attacked. There is absolutely no logic or reason to your argument. Some individuals for some reason just don't seem to get attacked. Some toddler getting their eye poked out isn't relevant. I'm not even sure how you imagine it was worth mentioning.

Yellowtail: I'm not at all sure what the basis for them avoiding some people is, but I doubt it is that they recognise people who like them. I suppose I do quite like Magpies, but I don't see how they would be aware of that. Countless times I have walked in 'Magpie swoop zones' where most people get swooped, and I've been completely unaware that Magpies were there until after I've walked through, sometimes several times. Because they don't swoop me, I have often been much less aware of where nesting pairs have been than other people are. I've tried deliberately walking through swoop zones other people have told me about (often warning me not to go to them) to actively try to get swooped because it has never happened to me before, but they still don't swoop.

Sometimes when walking with other people, the other person doesn't want to walk through a swoop zone and they either hang back or protest but unhappily walk with me, and when I'm there they don't swoop the other person. Often when the other person has watched me walk alone unswooped they've been amazed.

It's tempting to think it's because I'm tall, but they didn't swoop me when I was a kid either (I grew up in suburban Melbourne where there are plenty of Magpies).

Plovers do swoop me! I vividly remember the first time I was swooped by a plover as a kid in Melbourne! Haha!