I’ve posted about magpie swooping season before here. From August until November the Australian Magpie is nesting and protects its eggs and young by swooping anything it perceives to be a threat. It’s not much fun for pedestrians or cyclists. I’ve certainly been victim to many a swoop and I try to avoid them if I can.
Some magpies swoop and keep a bit of a distance between their beak and the unsuspecting person’s head…others, not so much. To try and help people be prepared for the swoop, Australia has a map where swooping magpies are logged.
Source: Magpie Alert
Red indicates an injury was sustained, yellow means no injury. And the darker the colour the more recent the swoop/injury was. We’ve got a particularly nasty magpie in our area. Luckily we live just far away that enough that the magpie isn’t really a problem for us. But there are 6 injuries recorded so far for that bird.
Do you have any problematic wildlife that requires mapping as a public service?
September 29, 2026 at 5:10 am
There was a bird (not a magpie, not sure what kind of bird) that had nested in a tree at school. (This was many, many years ago.) The teacher in the classroom just beyond started carrying an umbrella as that bird attacked her many times as she was just going to her classroom. It happens
September 29, 2026 at 7:41 am
There were magpies nesting in a really tall pine at my high school. It only swooped teachers. The school kids loved those birds (they were very well fed, lol).