Aggressive birds Archives -

Spring has sprung – Watch out for swooping Magpies attacking cyclists

September 17, 2020 Nicola Aggressive birds, Magpies, Women cycling

Every Spring the cyclists of Sydney lament the arrival of the humble Aussie Magpie breeding season when you need to look out for swooping Magpies attacking cyclists. For the record I really love birds and think they play a key role in our urban environments. I particularly enjoy hearing the beautiful warble of the Magpies in the early morning but I’m not so keen when they dive bomb me while I’m riding by. Spring is an awesome time of the year to ride a bike, but it also means that there are a lot of angry birds swooping cyclists in

Magpies swooping cyclists – do they deserve to be shot?

September 6, 2019 Nicola Aggressive birds, Bicycle helmet, Cycle groups, Women cycling

This week in my home town of Sydney, there was much talk about magpies swooping cyclists and a Sydney municipal council ‘removing’ a magpie that has been attacking cyclists for a number of years. Apparently, there’s been some 40 complaints after three years of attacks so the bird was shot. A friend of mine who writes a cycling blog called Carbon Addiction did an interesting poll on Facebook asking if his followers thought if the hapless bird deserved a bullet and the respondents were close to a 50/50 split. I’m not here to debate whether this ‘removal’ should have occurred

How to avoid magpie attack while riding your bike

September 25, 2018 Nicola Aggressive birds, Women cycling

I was rudely reminded on Sunday morning that at this time of year you need to avoid magpie attack while riding your bike, when an angry bird swooped me, clipping the back of my helmet. While he did me no harm, I could have overreacted and crashed my bike!! You see it’s Spring in my home town of Sydney, and while it’s an awesome time of the year to ride a bike, it also means that there are a lot of angry birds swooping cyclists in the next couple of months. Magpies seem to get most of the mentions, but

Magpies attack cyclists in Spring – they’re back early

August 29, 2017 Nicola Aggressive birds, Women cycling

It’s nearly Spring in my home town of Sydney, and while it’s an awesome time of the year to ride a bike, it also means that there’ll be lots of angry birds swooping cyclists in the next couple of months because magpies attack cyclists in Spring. I usually wait until mid September to talk about bird attacks but they seem to have started earlier this year so here’s my advice. Magpies seem to get most of the mentions, but in my local area there are a couple of very vicious butcherbirds that re-emerge at this time of year to protect

It must be Spring. Magpies are attacking cyclists

September 29, 2015 Nicola Aggressive birds, Cycle groups, Women cycling

A couple of weeks ago a good friend of mine sent me a distressed message via text to tell me she’d been attacked by a couple of magpies on her morning ride and come off the bike, injuring herself and damaging her stead. And since her story I’ve heard quite a few tales of woe about bird attacks so I thought I should tackle this topic again. Native birds such as Australian Magpies are highly protective of their eggs, nest and young and will often swoop at unsuspecting passers-by if they feel threatened. Other native Australian birds that are also

The amazing life of ultra-endurance cyclist Juliana Buhring

September 8, 2015 Nicola Aggressive birds, Cycle tours, Women cycling

I’m not sure how this amazing story has passed my notice, but I’m glad I’ve finally stumbled upon it. Juliana Buhring is clearly an extraordinary person. Wikipedia describes her as a British-German ultra-endurance cyclist and writer. Having read a little background about her I think she could only be described as an internationalist. I didn’t interview her for this blog post, instead I’ve compiled this from a few articles I found about Juliana from the past few years. It all began in December 2012, when she set the first Guinness World Record as the Fastest Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe by Bike,

Cyclists beware of angry butcherbirds in Spring

October 14, 2014 Nicola Aggressive birds, Bike retail, training, Women cycling

Last year I wrote a post about Springtime bird attacks, and either I didn’t heed my own advice or the birds in my area are really bad this year, but last week I was attacked by a very aggressive butcherbird! For those who don’t know about this little ‘terrier’ of a bird, it’s an Australian native and about half the size of a magpie and usually grey or black & white in colour. Since being attacked by one last week I’ve done a little research on these aggressive little so-and-sos. As well as having a hook at the end of its