Magpies get feisty guarding their babies

Turns out these birds will absolutely come at you if their kids are near

By Smartasaurus· 1 min read Curious

Every spring in Australia, there's a public safety warning about a songbird

Scale check

Gut call — how extreme does this actually get?

Reality tends to overshoot. Pick your ceiling.

The short version

Turns out these birds will absolutely come at you if their kids are near
A University of Sydney study found that magpies could recognise specific human faces and reliably swooped only the people who had once disturbed th…
So the dive-bombing isn't blind panic.

Every spring, Australia issues a public safety warning about a songbird.

The Australian magpie, during its six-week breeding season, will dive-bomb anything that comes within fifty metres of its nest — cyclists, joggers, postal workers, garbage trucks, golden retrievers, drones. It does not bluff. The strikes come from behind, silent, at roughly 50 kilometres an hour, and the beak is sharp enough to draw blood from a human scalp. There is a website, MagpieAlert, where people log attacks. It receives thousands of reports each spring.

What makes this strange is not the aggression. Plenty of birds defend nests. What makes it strange is that magpies remember individual faces — and hold the grudge for years.

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