In contrast to most of us within the Northern Hemisphere who’re gearing up for cool autumn temperatures, Australia is coming into springtime. This implies heat temperatures, flowers in bloom, and a interval of anticipation for the new humid summer time months to return. For cyclists and park-goers this additionally means hazard from above.
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Magpies are among the many most iconic of Australia’s birds, together with emus, cockatoos, and kookaburras, in fact. Whereas they share their identify with the magpies of the Northern Hemisphere, Australian Magpies are completely different. Also called Pied Butcherbirds, Australian Magpies are songbirds belonging to the Artamidae household. They’re neither corvids, like true magpies are, nor carefully associated to the corvid household, regardless of the resemblance that they share.
Many corvids are recognized to “mob” predators that enter their territory as a way of defending their nests and offspring. These fearless brazen assaults on bigger predatory animals are usually not distinctive to corvids, however this habits could also be a technique during which the Australian Magpie carries a little bit of corvid spirit.
Swooping Season is the identify usually given to Australian springtime on account of territorial magpie habits. Throughout the nesting season, magpies could develop fiercely defensive of their nests and younger, dive-bombing anybody who comes shut sufficient to pose a menace. More often than not, they’re innocent, however swooping magpies have been recognized to trigger critical harm beneath the precise circumstances.
Earlier this month, a bike owner in Melbourne was attacked by a magpie that injured his eye, inflicting him to lose sight for a time till a “miraculous” surgical procedure might be carried out. Whereas most don’t obtain a peck to the attention, many cyclists have born the brunt of magpie assaults to the extent that it’s fairly frequent to see cyclists carrying “anti-magpie” helmets in the course of the spring season. These are sometimes regular bike helmets affixed with zipties and pipe cleaners to discourage the swooping birds.
Supposedly, solely about 10% of magpies swoop at people, nonetheless they’re frequent sufficient birds that swooping incidents are fairly widespread. It’s usually mentioned that they may hardly ever ever swoop at somebody who’s dealing with them, so typical knowledge means that pedestrians strolling by way of a magpie’s territory ought to make eye contact and stroll slowly previous.
Swooping might be alarming and even harmful habits, nonetheless you will need to keep in mind that these birds are merely performing on an intense protecting intuition. It’s this intuition that enables them to protect their younger towards predators.
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