Locals are ducking for cover as protective magpies swoop in.
There have been more than 450 magpie attacks in Queensland this swooping season, including dozens that resulted in injuries.
In Townsville there have been five attacks reported to the Magpie Alert website in the past week alone.
In one incident a cyclist said they were swooped on Fulham Road at Mundingburra on Monday September 12.
BirdLife’s Rodney Appleby says the birds seem to particularly dislike cyclists, accounting for more than 70 percent of attacks.
“I don’t know if there’s a particular reason why that may be, maybe it’s just because of some of the colourings or something of that nature that they wear, or just because they enter territories more frequently, so maybe they’ve have an incident with a cyclist in the past.”
Mr Appleby says there are a few things you can do to avoid getting swooped.
“The first thing is don’t panic; don’t go waving your arms around too much and stuff like that – that can be seen as an aggressive behaviour.”
“The best thing to do is just to stare the magpie down and then just slowly make your way outside of their territory.”
Swooping season is expected to last a couple more weeks before residents no longer have to live in fear.
“Should be in the next couple of weeks as the fledglings start coming out of the nest.
“Once the younger birds have left the nest then there’s less reason to defend the nest.
