Magpie Attacks?

sorry guys, just did a search on magpies and found a number of threads already open. Ignore this post unless you're like me and have never been as [censored] at a living creature before in your life and just want to rant. Surely after I'd belted off 400m down the road at 50km/h the stupid f%$% knew that its dumb bird children and house were safe from me

I've been pretty lucky with the bird attacks...they've hidden from me. The only problem I have are the kamikaze bugs. For some reason, those big locust things like to fly straight into me wherever I ride.

tokenron said:

I was attacked either 8 times by one magpie or a total of 8 times by a number of different magpies whilst cycling up Princes Hwy Melbourne the other day. I got a nasty cut over my left ear and almost knocked into traffic

Are magpie attacks common to cyclists? Do they attack a certain colour of helmet or do they just go nuts at anything? Are there any crafty strategies to discourage them from attacking? Any tricks? IS IT AGAINST THE LAW TO KILL THEM AND DESECRATE THEIR TINY SCRAWNY BIRDLIKE BODIES???

I think I mortally offended a young family passing on the footpath with my screamed obscenities and crazed arm flapping.

Out of curiousty, what colour is your helmet? Mine's red, it seems like every magpie on the road wants to have a crack at me. They're really cunning too. They wait until people are driving past so they've got something laugh about. It's going to kill someone around my area.
Seriously though, you should tie cable ties to your helmet, so that they stick up in the air. They can't reach your head without touching the cable ties, generally they hover above you, confused by the cable ties but it's not uncommon to feel the cable ties get hit.
It's just as dangerous with cable ties on though. Instead of riding off, flapping like a bat out of hell, i like to watch the bird struggling with the ties by my reflection on the road. It makes it fun, then again, i'm still not concentrating on the road.

For extra protection, i wear safety glasses on grey and overcast days as well. I've heard stories of people getting hit in the face my magpies.😎

Alias said:

Out of curiousty, what colour is your helmet? Mine's red, it seems like every magpie on the road wants to have a crack at me. They're really cunning too. They wait until people are driving past so they've got something laugh about. It's going to kill someone around my area.
Seriously though, you should tie cable ties to your helmet, so that they stick up in the air. They can't reach your head without touching the cable ties, generally they hover above you, confused by the cable ties but it's not uncommon to feel the cable ties get hit.
It's just as dangerous with cable ties on though. Instead of riding off, flapping like a bat out of hell, i like to watch the bird struggling with the ties by my reflection on the road. It makes it fun, then again, i'm still not concentrating on the road.

For extra protection, i wear safety glasses on grey and overcast days as well. I've heard stories of people getting hit in the face my magpies.😎

Thanks for the tip. Anything to confuse/inconvenience/annoy these creatures is worth doing. Also good for my peace of mind, for the rest of the ride I was flinching whenever I passed a tree of any significant size.

My helmet is dark grey, which I would have thought was sufficiently non-provocative, but obviously not. Like you I always wear glasses when I cycle anyway, even when its dark and/or raining - its all mental but I just feel like I'm in better shape with them.

I only started riding seriously last autumn and through this winter...I've never been attacked by a bird before but from reading some of the other threads I guess spring is their aggressive season. 😠

They're cunning [censored]...it tried a few times on my right shoulder, a couple times on the back of my lid and then got me flush above the left ear when had my head turned to the right.