John Henderson said:Travis said:I was swooped in an unusual place today, right on my own
doorstep. Almost the moment I stepped outside of my front door
a magpie appeared and began swooping.
Later in the afternoon I went out again and the magpie wasn't
there.
I figured this would be as good a place as any to ask about
magpie swooping behaviour... I was under the impression that
they only swoop when their nest is around and only for a short
season in spring when they breed. I'm not aware of any nearby
nests and I thought the breeding season was over already.
Does this mean I'm going to have to start wearing a helmet to
go check the mail or is it possible this was just a one off
brush with a cranky bird?
For what they're worth, my personal observations and
conclusions:
Magpies seem to stagger their nesting. Some pairs go early in
the season, and others nest later. I imagine this creates less
pressure on available sites, allowing more pairs to breed.
Swooping seems to stop as soon as the young leave the nest.
They don't swoop to protect young "on the ground".
The exception seems to be the training sessions. Irrespective
of the position of a nest and in full view of the nearly
fully-grown young, they will swoop half-heartedly. I think
this is to teach the young which things to swoop. Birds learn
by mimicing behaviour - the young follow the adults about
watching everything they do.
John
I recall on the radio about 2 years ago a study in Sth Aus and they
cited in their findings on the cause of swopping was not nesting issue
or protecting the young.
It was young male magpies doing things that young males do, one of
which is the harrass other animals and birds just for the fun of it.
It may be seasonal simply because those male birds all reach a similar
age at that time of the year and start the bad behaviour so there is a
surge of it, but they said it can occur at anytime of the year.
Never heard another word about it since.
But I know from outside my factory which is right next to the Braeside
Park wetlands we get heaps of birds of all kinds flying around the
estate on Sundays when the traffic is gone and evenings mid week.
Many magpies.
Never had any swoop, in fact they come quite close and are fairly
confident birds, some of which have younger ones with them squawking
loudly.
Ive watched the bird life around there for periods and from the look
of it, they like to play games with each other.
Ive seen them playing tag, one chases another around, the chase
reverses. This goes on for a while then they stop and rest for a while
without any interaction.
Then one takes off again the the chase starts again.
Mynahs dance around the larger birds on the ground and annoy them.
Same as they do to domestic cats, all landing near the cat hoping
around and flying off as soon as they get the cats attention.
One after the other in a group of them sitting nearby up high, like a
game of chicken.
Magiies and other birds certainly look like they spend a good deal of
time just passing the time sparing with one another for the fun of it
and playing chicken with domestic cats.
If you have a bird that is swooping in the same spot.
Try this.
Stop and wait till it lands, then walk toward it and make a loud bird
like noise, a screech or the like.
They will fly off and land again, walk toward them again.
In short harrass them a bit by continually approaching them until they
fly off out of sight.
Even go up and kick the tree they are sitting in to harrass them a bit
more.
I suggest they likely will get un nerved enough to leave you alone.
And if birds have the memory of people I suspect they do, do this a
few times and I suggest maybe the bird will leave you alone for good.
I suggest that the more agitated you become or the more you try to
flee, the more fun it makes it for the bird to swoop you.
If nothing else has worked, it can't hurt to try it.
