Toddler left with blood gushing from his head in magpie attack
A young boy was left covered in blood after a magpie swooped him at a park in Queensland.
Ashleigh Ferguson said while her little boy, Jordan, is fine, the magpie "got him a beauty" when they were at park near the playground.
In the photo Ms Ferguson shared, blood can be seen all through Jordan's hair. She said she just wanted to make sure people were aware of the dangers.
Ms Ferguson told Yahoo News Australia her two sons both have special needs and had been to the playground just two days before the swooping without an incident.
"It was nice and quiet which works well for us and the boys," she said.
"I did take note of another magpie close to us but nothing happened, so all was good."
However, it was a different story when she went back on the Friday, with Jordan and his three-year-old brother, and her partner.
The four, along with toddler trikes, were walking to the playground from a different entrance.
Ms Ferguson said Jordan was right beside her, while her partner and other son were quite some distance behind them and they had been walking for about ten minutes when Jordan stopped to look at some ants.
Then, Ms Ferguson saw the magpie looking at her before it flew off, but by the time she called out to her son and turned towards him, he had already been swooped.
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Jordan, who is non verbal, then began to cry.
"I instantly saw the blood, scooped him up, cradled his head and put pressure on it and ran to my partner and other son 250m away," Ms Ferguson said.
"By the time I got to my partner, my hand was covered in blood."
The four of them bolted back to the car; by then Jordan had stopped crying and using a first aid kit, they were able to clean him up.
Ms Ferguson's partner's mother is a nurse, so they phoned her and followed her instructions and no stitches were needed and later in the day Jordan was chasing birds in the backyard.
The mother has not contacted the council about the swooping, however, she did post about on a local Facebook group.
"We just wanted to warn others because we would hate for someone else (child or adult) to be injured. We didn’t expect the response we got," she said.
However, Ms Ferguson is now hearing that other people in the area have been attacked by what may be the same magpie
"I’m a huge animal lover, my mum is a vet nurse and I’ve rescued and fostered many animals over the years," Ms Ferguson said.
"But maybe relocating this particular bird to a quieter area is in the best interest of the community and the bird as well."
According to the Queensland Government, only nine per cent of magpies are aggressive towards people.
Magpies are known to become aggressive when it is defending its nest and in some cases where human safety is at risk, a magpie will be removed from the area.
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