Experts fear mask wearing could provoke magpie swooping

Experts have revealed how the Covid-19 pandemic and magpie swooping season could be a troubling combination.

Magpie experts fear the birds will ramp up their swooping of humans during the upcoming spring breeding season because Australians are wearing Covid-19 masks.

The intelligent creatures remember individual facial features and stop swooping those who enter their territory regularly.

However, Covid-19 masks make it difficult for a magpie to learn a person’s face, and they are particularly territorial during spring breeding.

Griffith University magpie expert Darryl Jones said the mask wearing could lead to magpies wanting to “belt” everyone.

“The mask comes into this story because most of the magpies which swoop pedestrians, do so to only one or two individuals who for some reason have become regarded as a threat,” he told NCA NewsWire.

“Almost every magpie lives in a small territory with about 20 to 30 people living there with them. The birds never leave this patch and get to know all these people very well.

“We know that they recognise people by their facial features so when these are covered by a mask, they can’t distinguish between everyone.

“So, just to be safe (in their minds), they seem to be saying ‘I can’t tell who is that nasty one so I had better belt everyone’.”

The magpie that caused a fatal accident involving a mother and her baby at Holland Park in Brisbane. Picture: Liam Kidston

In NSW, University of New England magpie expert and author Gisela Kaplan told NCA NewsWire that swooping was a warning to strangers and lockdowns forcing people to walk through parks could be a reason for more swooping.

“They are wonderful creatures and usually parks are the only places with trees thick and tall enough for them to nest,” she said.

“With a lot more people walking through parks whom magpies don’t recognise, that could lead to more swooping.”

A resident is attacked by the magpie that caused a Holland Park accident in Queensland. Picture: Liam Kidston

Male magpies are more territorial between August and October due to breeding. Picture: Liam Kidston

South Australian government advice urges people to use caution while magpies breed between August and October.

“Females will typically lay between three and five eggs in early to mid-August and will sit on them for three weeks until they hatch,” the advice reads.

“It’s during these times that some males defend their nests – from the time the eggs are laid until the young birds are fledged. They will attack anything they consider to be a threat – from a sparrow to a dog to a human.”

A five-month-old baby was killed when her mother fell while trying to avoid a magpie swoop at a park in Brisbane earlier this month.

A Queensland Ambulance Service spokesman said paramedics were called to the park following “reports that a mum had fallen with a baby in her arms”.