Anti-Magpie Swooping Devices

From my own personal experience they seem to be genetically coded to target fat dudes puffing up hills on bicycles – maybe they do a risk assessment/target generation mental process beforehand and ascertain im an easy hit.

A ranger was telling me about the fact that some Maggies attack certain things but not others. For example a Magpie may single out targets such as:
Pedestrians
Cyclists
Pedestrians with Dogs
Pedestrians with Prams
Cyclists wearing a particular colour helmet
School children wearing a particular colour uniform

The Maggies have a mental checklist and they choose certain attributes which threaten them leaving everything else alone. The criteria is sometimes passed on down generations, even when the adult bird is removed before the chicks hatch.

Some of course are just cranky nasty pieces of testosterone and will take on anything and everything. I guess this means they are not unlike humans.

feel free to take a swipe at them, not try to maim or kill them
I believe that only the rangers have the right to determine if a bird is to be euthanised. Not us.
If you can take a swipe, with the intentions of missing or training the bird, go for it. I just find “Lets just kill it” an extreme reaction, when there are other options.

My anti-violence to magpies probably stems from my own guilt, when as a 13 year old, some “friends” asked me if I wanted to join them in a game of tennis with a vicious magpie, I declined. I still feel guilty that I didn’t do anything to stop them at the time.

Thanks Mr_Shab – that all I was suggesting, and I’ve made a note of it. Cheers for that.

Note: the scoring suggestion was more of a laugh, but hey – it seems to make sense now after your description 😉

we had a particularly vicious magpie who refused mince, preferring to score tracks in heads with its beak. (not mine)

my wife the conservationist phoned act govt – they sent out a couple of rangers and, after being chased back to their car a couple of times, set a trap, took the bird away and euthanised it.

no more bad attack bird.

the other magpies seem to be much better behaved. (perhaps they saw what happened to the other evil magpie)

Serves me right. After saying that only the cable-tie festooned types get swooped, guess what happened to yours truly this AM. I was pedalling peacefully away when I was broken from my reverie by some clunks on my helmet and some angry squarking.

For Tyler’s list – cycle path at Glenloch, just before the underpasses prior to crossing Lady Denman. This maggie gets a 7 (frequent attacker, but doesn’t seem to go for the face).

So where was this Danman – for the list dude?

Cnr (Roundabout) of Mirrabei Drive & Shoalhaven Avenue – On the northern side of the intersection.

I ride to braddon and its the only bird that gives me grief so my helmet remains unadulterated with cable ties etc, and it gives me that extra push to get up the hill on the other side of the intersection.

“I’d be reminding you that magpies are protected, and protected or not, a magpie won’t get the message.

In spring, their balls are bigger than their brains. They’re working on instinct, not logic. If you hurt a magpie, I suggest you are doing the same.”

The Brad: for starters, I said feel free to take a swipe at them, not try to maim or kill them. The reality is that animals can be conditioned. And if they learn that swooping and more so pecking achieves their goal, at no peril to themselves, than they learn to keep doing it. If however someone were to regularly stand up to them and take a swipe at them, they would instead be conditioned that their behaviour is more perilous than doing nothing. Pavlov’s dog…

My point about the commonness of maggies was to point out that they are one of those species that has directly benefited from artificial environment change, and have expanded in numbers way beyond natural balance levels – just like roos in some areas and Noisy Miners in most areas, and even wombats and koalas in some places. This greenie has learnt that the wider environment sometimes benefits from corrections to these imbalances.

So in the context of this discussion, my point was that if someone undertaking some conditioning of a dangerous magpie inadvertantly connected with it (quite unlikely but possible) and it was hurt or killed, then it would be (to put it simply) no great loss to nature.

“I bet you think that it’s ok to kill a cat, or a dog (or a ferret) if it attempts to bite you? It’s the same logic.”

If it tried to harm me, and there was a risk of a repeat to my children (and as a child myself having had my face ripped open by the family dog), you bet. Ferret? Surely you’re not trying to draw a link between this comment on swooping magpies and the ferret torturers?? The logic leap you make in your accusations are truly intriguing…

can think of about 27,000 things that would be preferable to your spending your valuable time creating and maintaining such a list, tyler.

We are on the topic of swooping maggies aren’t we? Now to clarify, I wasn’t suggesting an official page on RA, or a dedicated website either. I was suggesting that everyone who’s written in with their “near death experience” magpie attacks might consider actually pointing out where it happened. So your assumption Overheard, that I was suggesting some grand plan of a maintained list is exactly that…an assumption.

GB said :

Really, its not like there’s a critical shortage of magpies. Lets just kill it.

Reminds me of a very un-PC story about my dad (long dead now) but who at the time was a country copper. Anyway, Mum and various friends were playing golf and were being swooped by a particularly vicious magpie so Dad (who’d called by to say g’day) drew his service revolver and shot it out of the tree. I suspect if that happened these days there’d be a full-scale PIC-style investigation!

Pris

tylersmayhem said :

Does anyone see any value in creating a list of Magpie swooping areas? I’m happy to start the list reporting a maggie on Battye Street near Proximity. He’s a grade 4(0ut of 10)and only an occasional swooper. LOL

I can think of about 27,000 things that would be preferable to your spending your valuable time creating and maintaining such a list, tyler.

It’s called using a bulldozer to crack a cashew. (Don’t crack cashews — they’ve got gigs coming up soon.)

Get out and enjoy the day — just walk softly and carry a big stick.

It is a pain to be swooped. Doesn’t seem to be much that deters the little mongrels these days. I do remember as a little tacker donning the helmet and making the mad dash past their nest while the bigger kids in the street were howling at me getting attacked. They always only got he helmet though. You have to love the feeling after a near miss. Adrenaline pumping, wobbly knees, heart pounding. It does help out with the training aspect, we’re all in it for some exercise and well being.
As far as being hit, and blood drawn(I would have to take my shoes off to count), it does make me cranky, but it only happens for 3 months of the year. And a change of route is nice too, as long as you’re not on your way to work, running late, forgot your towel.

So where was this Danman – for the list dude?

Got swooped again on my bike today – waiting for a gap in the traffic – that i picked quite well without having to stop at a road crossing…A young lady running in the opposite direction took the heat off me this time..instead of me waiting for a line of traffic whilst being swooped like yesterday.

I dont much care for them either, have been pecked many times – but hay it keeps you on your feet.

They are just doing as nature intended them to do.. not their fault… but they are nasty fu*kers sometimes ill admit.

Does anyone see any value in creating a list of Magpie swooping areas? I’m happy to start the list reporting a maggie on Battye Street near Proximity. He’s a grade 4(0ut of 10)and only an occasional swooper. LOL

Deeza, people in my organisation in the Qld offices consistently complain about the plovers that are apparently much nastier and chock a block full of the angry pills than the magpies. Was that your experience?

And yeah, the runners in particular have problems. Brisbane isn’t conducive to running around in full Hazmat suits.

But there’s a marketing opportu….

I was going to make some pithy gag about opening up a ‘Tranqualise a Magpie For Fun and Profit’ at Fadden Pines, but don’t trust myself to make it ironic enough to stave off the RSPCA, police and other authorities having me done for a hate crime against the magpies.

I hate to say it, but the particularly nasty birds (like some of those described here) should be either removed to the bush or euthanised. I really enjoy the local magpies for 9 months of the year but the minority do turn into vicious little buggars each year and cause havoc all around the Fadden Pines bike tracks and playground. The really mean one at Fadden Pines guards the toilet block (right next to the kid’s playground), so any unsuspecting little kids/adults who make the dash to the loo will end up with some nasty pecking action. Fadden Pines Primary School has one terror that targets the ‘little kids’ playground, resulting in terrorised, bleeding kids, who will undoubtedly grow up to hate these beautiful birds. In cases like this (repeat offenders), the birds need to be moved – for the future good of all magpies!

As a runner, I have tried numerous techniques over the years to avoid pecking and have found that nothing really works against the true ‘kamikazes’. These days I stick to a known route in Spring and wave a big stick around my head through the ‘danger zones’ – yep, I look like a complete wanker, but I haven’t been pecked in three seasons!

Oh – and we used to pecked all of the time in Queensland riding to and from school – so it isn’t just the local Canberra birdies that are completely insane 😉

Overheard said :

‘FAR Q!’

Don’t worry, I know what the Q means ….

*chuckle*

I have a soft spot for magpies, maybe stemming from the fact that from age 9 to the year 1999, I used to wear a replica football jumper (or rather, several) that featured a magpie and would have said ‘Raudonokis’ or ‘Ribot de Bresac’ on the back except that I had to wait until I was big enough for the jumper to fit all the letters (and by that time they’d both defected to other clubs).

But I’d echo others’ comments that have resonances of my weekend just past in a little spot that was pure kangaroo and wallaby central. Every now and again, some dear little snot-nosed darlings (whose parents obviously didn’t give a flying fig) would do a bit of light tormenting of the wildlife, so I called them all in and ran a quick focus group (as much as you can with six year olds; they weren’t good at taking minutes or observing meeting protocol, but they did recognise the chair — actually it was a tree stump). By the end of it, we’d passed two motions: 1. we were all pirates (ARRRRRRRRR!), and 2. the kangaroos and wallabies were here before we turned up so let’s leave them alone; it’s their place and to harass them in their own home was a bit rude.

Same goes with the magpies. (Not that they’re pirates, but they were hear before us.)

HOWEVER, that doesn’t stop them being monumental pains in the ring, and though I wouldn’t seriously consider taking one out of the food chain, I did have some pretty murderous thoughts about one where I lived at the top of Totterdell Street about four years ago. This thing wanted me dead and he was as cunning as a weasel. I’m afraid I did hear my own voice bouncing off the apartment blocks several times in spring: ‘FAR Q!’

Who is that masked magpie?

Snarky said :

I have a small spinning nylon fabric windsock on the back of my ‘bent. Swooping magpies HATE it 🙂

No, the magpies hate the recumbent.

i don’t ride much but i do walk my dogs with the kids touch wood we have not been swooped but if you are worried about your daughter then get some coloured pipe cleaners and have fun with your daughter by decorating her helmet by turning them into some wiggle one with flowers on the end

i watched my step-brother get hammered by a very angry maggie that lived in the park area across from my parents house when i was a kid it left him with a hole the size of a 5 cent coin in the back of his head from then on we went the long way to school every maggie season til it died or left years later it still haunts me

GB – that same damn bird got me, underneath the helmet and on the ear. Hurt like nothing else.

There’s another really bad one opposite the Ainslie Footy Club. It doesn’t go for people at the club only the innocent people riding or walking past.

Well I do have respect that you fly your flag proud (pun intended)and I certainly am happy you are keeping the local birkenstock store afloat, each to their own I guess. I prefer my lovely BMC with full Dura Ace though.

[grin] all true, Jas. Fortunately I’m well past giving a f*** what other people think I should ride, and choose solely on the basis what *I* want to ride!

Yeah but you ride a recumbent….. I for one am deeply sorry for your loss of any shred of style you had left.

I have a small spinning nylon fabric windsock on the back of my ‘bent. Swooping magpies HATE it 🙂

Was out riding one day when I heard this angry, angry bird clacking and screaming at me and looked up to see a mightily aggro magpie trying to swoop me… but he wasn’t going to come closer than a meter to the windsock “teeth” spinning away at the back. Heh heh, Snarky 1, Magpie 0.

I have a hideously expensive (for a helmet) Bell Sweep R which I take great pride in even though I only pay wholesale for all of my stuff, but there is no way I would ever tie those stupid zip ties on to it, if not for the price of the helmet but really I don’t want to look like a tool, I am quite vain when it comes to all things bike related though.

Once in a while, we must suffer for fashion, or perhaps just suffer for not looking like a total douche, at the end of the day I see it as good sprint training really.

1. There are signs. They don’t say “warning you are danger of serious injury”, stop now and turn back. So people assume this will be like any normal swooping magpie – a nuisance, not a danger.
2. I live there too. I can avoid walking to the shops, or riding to work by a reasonably sensible route, but only with some difficulty.
3. “If you kill the bird, you are also killing the nest.” I am fine with that. I would prefer if we could locate the nest, and kill them humanely.
4. I know its illegal. I think that should change – rangers should be able to destroy unusually vicious birds, just as they do with dogs.
5. Thanks for the relocation link — I have reported this bird (as have others). The response I got was ‘there are already signs’.

In case anyone is confused, I am not advocating hurting the magpie unnecessarily (though when I was nursing a a bloodied temple and grazed hands after coming off my bike from being stabbed in the head by the magpie, I would not have felt so charitable) .

I am advocating making it legal for the right person, in the right circumstance, to kill it. And yes, I accept that means suffering to the eggs and/or hatchlings. It would be better to kill this bird when there are not young around, if that were possible.

And I am well aware that magpies are protected. I do not think that protection should extend to unusually vicious magpies, in a highly populated area, for a species which is not endangered.

I’d be reminding people that like some other native species there is a surplus of maggies

I’d be reminding you that magpies are protected, and protected or not, a magpie won’t get the message.

In spring, their balls are bigger than their brains. They’re working on instinct, not logic. If you hurt a magpie, I suggest you are doing the same.

I bet you think that it’s ok to kill a cat, or a dog (or a ferret) if it attempts to bite you? It’s the same logic.

peterh said :

I don’t get swooped in my street – I feed the magpies pet mince.

LOL.. on first reading I thought you said you fed them pet mice.

We feed the maggie’s outside our place too, they seem to like us and often land at our feet. Their young do the same once they learn to fly. A mate of mine in Flynn had a cool trick when we were kids. He’d somehow trained a wild magpie to land on his shoulder when he whistled for it.

On topic – I just don’t ride my bike to work or go running around Mt Arawang until after the swooping season’s over. I hate getting swooped and refuse to look like a hedgehog by putting ties on my helmet.

Amazing some of the stories toat go like wildfire on RA…
I saw a guy on Saturday must have had 15 zip ties on his helmet!

We got swooped the other day – once I convinced the boy to ride in a straight line instead of trying to look at the bird, all was fine (if still entertaining).

But on those rare instances where the bird is ‘over the top’ and dangerous, then I’d be reminding people that like some other native species there is a surplus of maggies. I’d just pull up, get off and take a swipe at it to get the message across.

Lets just kill it

1. Are there signs warning of this menace? If not, maybe you should organise for some to be placed. It does sound like the area needs some.
2. Surely you can avoid the area for few months, now that you know it is there.
3. If you kill the bird, you are also killing the nest.
4. It’s illegal.
5. You could get it relocated rather than killing it – http://www.tams.act.gov.au/live/environment/wildlife/livingwithmagpies#environment_act_can_help_by

GB said :

Well, speaking as someone who does feed magpies, and does have cable ties all over my helmet — I reckon there comes a time when removing a particular magpie from the gene pool is the Right Thing. And that time has come around here (corner of Ebden and Wakefield, Ainslie). The same magpie each year. Its insane. It draws blood – a lot of blood. It attacks people on bikes, posties, old ladies with walking frames, anyone with a bit of metal nearby it seems. It even has a go at slow-moving cars.

Really, its not like there’s a critical shortage of magpies. Lets just kill it.

GB – your Magpie is the kamikaze one that drew blood…MY blood! I also think he tried to swoop my car the other day. I’m so glad it isn’t just me he’s after.

Well, speaking as someone who does feed magpies, and does have cable ties all over my helmet — I reckon there comes a time when removing a particular magpie from the gene pool is the Right Thing. And that time has come around here (corner of Ebden and Wakefield, Ainslie). The same magpie each year. Its insane. It draws blood – a lot of blood. It attacks people on bikes, posties, old ladies with walking frames, anyone with a bit of metal nearby it seems. It even has a go at slow-moving cars.

Really, its not like there’s a critical shortage of magpies. Lets just kill it.

i rekkun it has to do with karma, too – feeding and otherwise being nice to maggies is the way. almost never get swooped, and usually only a vague ‘get away, fiend!’ swoop in the vicinity, not the attack of the killer birds go for the eyes job…

other ploy is to have a dog with you. my hound gets swooped (stupid galoot never seems to notice) while i swipe vaguely at it with the leash, but the bird never goes for me.

i was coralled once by a brick wall in the middle of the tar basketball courts at my school in sydney when i was a tike. they wouldn’t let me out and it was fourty of fifty yards to the next nearest cover. i had to wait for twenty minutes til a few other kids turned up and we scared her away and i dashed home! no, not just canberra!

Tyler – I grew up in Farrer. The maggies down by the school were of a particularly cranky extraction. I had to fend one off a small child in a similar situation (though the kiddie was on foot at the time).

Um – back on topic – maybe it’s just me, but it always seems to be they echidna-wearers who get swooped. I don’t make any additions to my dome and they seem heartily disinterested in me, yet the guys in front or behind me on the paths seem to be the object of attention, despite their after-market mods.

No harm with thoughts.
If I took action for all the number of times I thought about running a***hole drivers off the road, I’d be a serial killer.

Then I’d have to run myself off the road as well.

Actually I thought you meant the stick was for holding vertically over your head so the magpie, prone to attacking the highest point on its target, would just attack the stick rather than your head.

Yeps, that why I had the stick in the first place.

The Brad said :

I did consider returning to the park with a motorcycle helmet and a squash racket to equal the score.

I realise that was an attempt at humour, but…….
Anyone who hurts a magpie with a weapon e.g. tennis or squash racket, deserves to go to court alongside ferret torturers IMHO.

It wasn’t an attempt at humour… when I got home I was pretty cranky and did consider it for a moment. Sorry if you find that offensive but rest assured after I managed to stop the bleeding from my face and have a cold drink to calm down it is the last thing I would do.

Forgive me for I have sinned with unkind thoughts about a swooping Magpie.

Magpies and plovers are fantastic sport for the urban extremist. Let your fear turn into creativity and enjoy the adrenaline rush, it only lasts for a short time every year.

So enjoy but don’t harm the creatures, they’re only protecting their babies after all.

To be honest though, they’re nothing compared to the idiots in my neighbourhood that let their rather large and aggressive dog escape and roam about the neigbourhood, attacking all and sundry who look at it funny.

At least magpies and plovers are seasonal, idiots exist all year round.

tylersmayhem said :

Yep PeterH – feeding is the answer.

We had a pair in a gum tree outside our house for many years. We feed them regularly on mince etc and no-one ever go swooped in spring time….

I used to be a believer in this theory, and always wondered if this is in fact true, then how do the magpies 10 km away know not to swoop you? Understandably they wouldn’t swoop you near your home, but so far away…I’m intrigued!

buggered if I know, but I don’t get swooped.

Actually I thought you meant the stick was …so the magpie…would just attack the stick rather than your head.

I thought the same. And a stick, is unlikely to maim a bird. Good luck hitting a bird with a branch or stick.
But, a tennis or squash racket (comment 6 and 17), shot gun (comment 7) to “even the score” will send me into defense mode with extreme prejudice for the animals.

Alfred Hitchcock would be happy.

Regardless of what you wear on your head/helmet please please wear sunglasses as well! It is true that they go for the eyes!

Actually I thought you meant the stick was for holding vertically over your head so the magpie, prone to attacking the highest point on its target, would just attack the stick rather than your head.

In some neighbourhoods you can identify a problem area by a pile of handy sticks for waving overhead at the edge of the danger zone.

I realise that was an attempt at humour, but…….
Anyone who hurts a magpie with a weapon e.g. tennis or squash racket, deserves to go to court alongside ferret torturers IMHO.

Yes, perhaps this is time for me to clarify in my previous post when I said “lucky I had a stick”, was to illustrate that at least it wouldn’t turn on me, and I could prod the bird away from the hysterical kid.

In my experience this is not unique to Canberra, I was first swooped as a kid on the Central Coast and my dad was KOd by one in Sydney a few years back. Even though it scares the sh!t out of me, I’m more concerned for my son. We feed them too but 50 metres up the road there’s a vicious bastard.
I too have heard about the eyes on the back of the helmet thing, I was thinking about two ping pong balls painted like eyes on the end of the cable ties… Who was talking about looking like an idiot again?

I did consider returning to the park with a motorcycle helmet and a squash racket to equal the score.

I realise that was an attempt at humour, but…….
Anyone who hurts a magpie with a weapon e.g. tennis or squash racket, deserves to go to court alongside ferret torturers IMHO.

And yes, I’ve been swooped, and it’s scary. But these animals are quite gentle for 9 months of the year. Broken wings are permanent….and illegal.

Yep PeterH – feeding is the answer.

We had a pair in a gum tree outside our house for many years. We feed them regularly on mince etc and no-one ever go swooped in spring time….

I used to be a believer in this theory, and always wondered if this is in fact true, then how do the magpies 10 km away know not to swoop you? Understandably they wouldn’t swoop you near your home, but so far away…I’m intrigued!

Yep PeterH – feeding is the answer.

We had a pair in a gum tree outside our house for many years. We feed them regularly on mince etc and no-one ever go swooped in spring time….

Problem was that at one point we were obviously known as the magpie form of Mcdonalds – and had about a dozen birds turning up for a feed!

I’ve read a couple of accounts of kamakazie magpies from Rosebud and Whatsup – where did these attacks happen as a matter of interest?

I remember when I was about 16 and living in Farrer. There was always a ruthless magpie that lived right next to the school. One day I was crossing the oval and I saw a little dude hooning down the road on his bmx. I thought “here we go, the kids obviously new to the area”. I saw the magpie line him up and take him head on and knock the boy off his bike. By the time I had ran about 50 meters over to him, he was pinned under the bike with the bird pirched the cross-bar pecking at his helmet. Lucky I had a stick.

They eventually put “magpie warning” signs up near the school. I wonder what ever happened to that bird?

Growling Ferret said :

Magpies are nothing compare to the plovers in Gungahlin. They are angry bloody birds!

and being called spur wing plovers don’t make you feel much better….

Magpies are nothing compare to the plovers in Gungahlin. They are angry bloody birds!

Prick of a magpie was swooping me while I was waiting at a crossing for traffic on the way to work today….

Sure as hell made me fly up th ehill after the crossing though….Damn bird.

We need devices like those ultrasonic dog trainers that will harmlessly drop them from the air in shock.

Whatsup said :

Surely a helmet is a deterrent?

Magpie swoops, whacks helmet, rider is fine, magpie retreats with pride slightly dented…

You would think a helmet would be enough, as I once did. I was riding through a local park and heard the familiar sounds of swooping wings approach. I thought ‘I’ll be fine, they will hit my helmet’ and the maggie did, over and over again. It obviously got cranky that I wasn’t yeilding to his attack and he swooped down and went for my eyes, his beak deflected of my sunglasses and opened up a cut on my face. After years of bike riding and the occasional Maggie encounter I had never seen one this agro.

If the cable tie echindas or eyes drawn on the back of you helmet work… go for it.

A kamikaze magpie threw his whole body into my face as I was riding – no less than three times in a row. He avoided the helmet by going side on and eventually broke my skin just below my eye.

I don’t get swooped in my street – I feed the magpies pet mince. been doing it for years, and they leave me alone.

“They always go on about Magpie swooping being a Canberra thing, but I was in Wagga last week and…”

Really? I’ve never heard this before. It doesn’t surprise me though, the things people say are particular to canberra. Apparently nowhere else in Australia has roundabouts either…

Whatsup said :

I did consider returning to the park with a motorcycle helmet and a squash racket to equal the score.

Bird Warrior

LOL

Maybe the magpie feels sorry for you already as you are a ginga?

Surely the government should legislate that, in magpie swooping season, all bike riders should wear full face motorcycle helmets.

You know it makes sense 😉

I did consider returning to the park with a motorcycle helmet and a squash racket to equal the score.

Surely a helmet is a deterrent?

Magpie swoops, whacks helmet, rider is fine, magpie retreats with pride slightly dented…

You would think a helmet would be enough, as I once did. I was riding through a local park and heard the familiar sounds of swooping wings approach. I thought ‘I’ll be fine, they will hit my helmet’ and the maggie did, over and over again. It obviously got cranky that I wasn’t yeilding to his attack and he swooped down and went for my eyes, his beak deflected of my sunglasses and opened up a cut on my face. After years of bike riding and the occasional Maggie encounter I had never seen one this agro.

If the cable tie echindas or eyes drawn on the back of you helmet work… go for it.

There can’t be too long left in this year’s magpie season so by next weekend I’m sure you and your son will be safe. I’m sure you’ve missed the worst of it so save yourself the ignominy of sticking cable ties and texta eyes to your helmet.

I’ve never bothered with cable ties and texta eyes never seemed to work. That always seemed to be more about customising the ol’ Stack Hat or yellow Guardian to make it look more gnarly.

I agree with blood_nut – I’d rather take the hits I get from a magpie than look like a tool. That said, if there were lots of particularly aggressive magpies swooping me on the parts of my commute where there is no bike lane, I’d probably look into options rather than end up in front of a car.

I remember when I was in primary school, lots of kids had big black eyes texta’d on the back of their Stack Hats. Apparently this worked. Perhaps you could try and see if you could tape some big eyes on the top of the helmet, which might not look as ridiculous as cable ties?!

blood_nut said :

ditto – i’d rather run the risk of taking a hit from a magpie than look like an idiot.

I’ve been in Canberra for over three decades and not once has a magpie hit me. maybe that’s enough evidence not to bother about it and run your luck.

They must be terrified of your masculinity overdrive…

ditto – i’d rather run the risk of taking a hit from a magpie than look like an idiot.

I’ve been in Canberra for over three decades and not once has a magpie hit me. maybe that’s enough evidence not to bother about it and run your luck.

A while ago when working in a bike shop we would actually get people coming in asking for the ‘anti magpie special devices’.

As mentioned, they don’t stop or deter an attack, however if you use long zip-ties – when the magpie comes swooping down it’ll snap/stop at the end of the zip-tie and not your ear. You can also use the fluffy pipe-cleaners found in a Kindagarten classroom near you. Some people use red electrical tape around the ends (like a little flag) to present a target away from their head for the magpies.

Be warned though, using zip-ties can damage the foam of the helmet. It’s mostly a cosmetic thing, but again depends on your vanity. Personally, my helmets are rather pricey and I’m extraordinarily vain, so no zip-ties. Easiest solution for me is to ride fast. My helmet is silver for what it’s worth.

I just found a government website that said putting ‘Big Brother eyes’ stickers on you helmet scares them away

I find a shot-gun is a great deterrant… Unless of course you shoot one, in which case all his friends come back to bid him farewell…

My brother in law used to go riding with a tennis racquet!

They always go on about Magpie swooping being a Canberra thing, but I was in Wagga last week and there was a bloke treadling along earnestly with his helmet festooned with long tube-things.

My favourite Magnet Mart ad was the one where the Magnet Mart guy encourages a Spy to brave the field where the magpie swoops to spy on the opposition. He gets a stick to hold up to ward off the magpie. Brilliant ad.

I’ve never been swooped (touch wood), maybe it’s the colour of my helmet? (its blue with white streams along it) or the bright orange backpack i have?

they don’t work. they still swoop you, just they hit the ties instead of your head.
It’s still damn scary when they are coming at you and you know their only intention is to try and take you out!

I’d gather that they’re not for pain but to extend the point of contact. A lot of Magpies won’t actually make contact, they’ll just get close enough and snap their beaks.

Haven’t used cable ties myself, but I always thought they were used to inflict pain on the swooping bird, if they did go for your head, hence why they’d not try again.