Aussies warned as swooping season begins

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A magpie attacks a drone. Picture: NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

Australians are being warned how to avoid “genuinely terrifying” magpie attacks as this year’s swooping season gets underway.

Most Australians are no doubt familiar with the dreaded sound of flapping wings right before a nasty peck to the head while unknowingly walking by a magpie nest.

There have been more than 980 magpie attacks reported to Magpie Alert in 2024 as of Monday as well as more than 100 injuries.

With swooping season under way, Bird Life Australia national public affairs manager Sean Dooley revealed that he’d been swooped many times despite being a bird expert.

“I’m out birdwatching a lot in spring. I probably went 20 years without being swooped once, but four or five years ago I got whacked a couple times, it can happen to all of us,” Mr Dooley said.

He said being swooped was “genuinely terrifying at times” and “can result in some terrible injuries”; however, understanding the behaviour of magpies is a great first step towards avoiding being attacked.

Poised to strike. Picture: Nat Bromhead / Daily Mercury
Poised to strike. Picture: Nat Bromhead / Daily Mercury

“It’s very easy to think these birds have just gone crazy and they hate everybody, but we know from all the research in almost 100 per of cases it’s only the male magpies that swoop,” he said.

“Even then it’s only about 10 per cent that swoop … and it’s only in that window when there are baby chicks in the nest.”

Mr Dooley said negative experiences with people shaped magpies’ perceptions, with the birds able to remember up to 30 faces within their neighbourhood and “stereotype” people.

“(It can) have flow-on effects for other people in the area … magpies will start swooping people who you look like,” he said.

Magpies only swoop within about 100m of their nest, with Mr Dooley advising people to move “quickly and calmly out of the danger zone”, emphasising there is “no need to panic”.

Bird Life Australia national public affairs manager Sean Dooley advised people not to 'panic' when being swooped. Picture: Supplied.
Bird Life Australia national public affairs manager Sean Dooley advised people not to 'panic' when being swooped. Picture: Supplied
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There have been more than 980 magpie swoopings reported this year. Picture: NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

Many injuries reported from magpie swooping stem from people’s reactions, Mr Dooley said, with people crashing their bikes as they panic.

“Just walk calmly out of that swooping zone … and the swooping will stop,” he said.

“Walk back the way you’ve come until you can make sure that you’re out of the swooping zone. If people know they’re just defending their nest, they know the magpie isn’t going to keep chasing them.

“About the worst thing you can do is panic, run around and scream and try and retaliate.”

Mr Dooley said other measures such as eyes or spikes on the back of a helmet could “work sometimes” but was “really hit and miss — excuse the pun”.

“It can help but it’s not foolproof,” he said.

“If you are swooped, it does help if you’ve got say sunglasses or something that you can put on to protect your eyes just in case.

A man claims that he's attacked by the same magpie everyday on his way to and from work on his bicycle.

“Best advice is once you’re swooped, see where the magpie has gone to … keep an eye on that magpie. It might mean they’re less likely to go again because they know you’re watching it … you’re more able to avoid it if you can see it coming rather than a stealth attack.”

Despite more than 980 swoopings reported this year, the number of weekly swoops compared with the six-year average has dropped by 87 per cent, according to Magpie Alert.

“We’re not at peak magpie swooping, and can’t quite compare to this time last year, but it certainly doesn’t seem to be as high as the last couple years,” Mr Dooley said.

“It may be the weather – and we can’t confirm this as yet – but it’s been a bit of warmer winter in a lot of areas.”

Mr Dooley also said there was a peak in swooping reports in 2021, which could have been because of the pandemic.

“It may actually just be because of lockdown, people were out and about in their neighbourhoods a lot more than usual … (That is) settling back down to normal now,” he said.