Martin
Some Magpie larks are still breeding. Two pairs which lost their earlier
breeding attempts were building new nests two-three weeks ago - probably
triggered by the November rain fall, so the behaviour might be
associated with territory defence. There was some incidents a fair few
years ago at ANU where a Magpie-lark pecked people in the eye while they
were enoying a cup of coffee on the outside tables. I have often
wondered why. It seems that the birds was quite tame, spending a lot of
time around the tables picking up scraps. The bird may have 'read' eye
movement as insect movement?
Con
martin butterfield wrote:
After receivng the following message from a nearby resident (I
identified the bird as a magpie lark) I rode over to the locale and
watched her get attacked vigorously by a male magpie-lark every time
she ran through the bird's domain. It made no attempt to attack me on
my bike.
It is difficult for this lady to run anywhere without passing this
spot so "run somewhere else" doesn't work. From HANZAB it appears
that breeding is likely to have stopped by the end of this month, but
given the length of the current aggression I don't think this can be
guaranteed. It has actually caused her injury and doesn't seem to
attack anyone else (she is rather tall - my height plus) so getting
the Council to do something about the bird is a low probability
option. I have suggested trying the eyes on the back of the hat
option. Does anyone have any other ideas that I could pass on to her?
Martin
" ... every day I go running and I have been doing this for the last
17 years without any bother at all until last August, when a bird
looking something like a miniature magpie with a high-pitched squeal
of a shriek but not a magpie and not a plover started swooping on me
each time I went down the street and back up again over a distance of
about 150 m. I figured that maybe it had a nest nearby but I never
ventured off the road because I was running and had no interest in
trying to find the bird's nest. So that was August, and it continued
swooping on me twice each run, twice a day so therefore four times a
day in September, October, November and it is still doing it in
December long after any eggs that may have been laid should have
hatched and the offspring flown away.
"Over all this time, the bird has become more aggressive. If I am
wearing my sunhat it has actually come down and hit my sunhat with its
wings, it is out waiting for me at five o'clock in the morning and the
only time I can go running without being attacked by this bird is in
the middle of the night. When I run down the road I see it on a branch
and as soon as it sees me it swoops towards me and I have to put up my
hand or hold up a stick to keep it from attacking my head and I am
getting rather tired of this because the bird is getting closer and
closer to doing me some damage for whatever reason I have no idea
because I have never left the road because I am running."
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