Several pedestrians injured in South Yarra area as magpie swooping season heats up

A WOMAN was left bleeding and thought someone had punched her when she was hit by a dive-bombing magpie in South Yarra — one of a number of close encounters as the breeding season heats up.

Magpie breeding season is getting underway and pedestrians and cyclists are being warned to look out. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

SEVERAL people have narrowly escaped serious injury after close encounters with dive-bombing birds.

Reports of swooping magpie and magpie-lark locations across Melbourne continue to grow as the breeding season takes hold.

The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) runs the Victoria Magpie Map with swoop sites reported recently in Elwood, St Kilda and St Kilda East.

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The privately run magpiealert.com shows South Yarra and the St Kilda Rd north precinct — near St Kilda Junction — have a tiny battalion of angry birds attacking locals.

Magpie swooping hot spots emerge as breeding season heats up

According to the website, a woman suffered cuts to her eye and head when a bird flew at her as she walked along Arnold St, South Yarra earlier this month.

The woman was reportedly on her way to church at St Thomas Aquinas on Sunday, August 13 when the bird attacked.

There have been several attacks already reported around the South Yarra area.

Another South Yarra woman reported she thought “someone had punched me” when she was hit by a kamikaze bird in Marne St.

“Something literally hit my eye and the side of my face, it felt like a sandbag it was so hard,” she wrote.

“I was bleeding from my eyelid and nearly could have lost my eye.”

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Someone else reported needing medical treatment for a scratched eyeball following a bird attack near St Kilda Junction, while a Brighton man said he was repeatedly attacked by a bird in Hanby St earlier this year.

“I ran off and (the bird) attacked again and again until I got about 50m away,” he wrote.

Most of the website’s reports have come in this month with swoop sites also identified in Albert Park and Ripponlea.

August to October is magpie breeding season, according to the DELWP, which advises the birds may swoop on intruders if they feel threatened.

Smaller magpie-larks, also known as mudlarks, peewees or Murray magpies, breed from January to December and their attacks can lead to serious injury.

DELWP says its map is used to understand why native birds swoop and help people avoid them or take precautions if they need to enter swooping areas.

Read more: How to avoid magpie attacks: Try making friends with them