Interactive 'magpie map' arms you against scourge of the skies
You may not know this, but there's an annual, bird-related event in Australia that's so hellish it gets it's own name; Magpie Season. This time around however, an interactive map is helping users avoid getting pecked by collating social media data, to document magpie attacks and provide friendly warnings in real time.
During spring, when the Australian magpie starts nesting, they become notoriously territorial that they dive-bomb, swoop, and generally stalk cyclists and pedestrians alike. It's terrifying.
Nesting season typically lasts for or four to six weeks between August to October, though this year Australians are being warned that the tyranny from the skies could extend right up until Christmas.
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Magpie season is also prime GoPro season, with footage serving as a reminder while we may be top of the food chain, our heads are soft and a magpie's beak is hard.
Scared yet? If that's not enough, research from Professor Darryl Jones of Griffith University has indicated that the eye-gouging birds remember their victims.
The rise in magpie attacks usually sees a correlative increase in peculiar head adornment in cyclists, as they try to deter the birds from swooping. Everything from cable ties and pipe-cleaners sticking out of a helmet, to googly eyes, pictures of enlarged human eyes and to-scale models of other birds.
Not that that will help you much. Professor Jones also told the Gold Coast Bulletin that “If they think you’re a threat they will follow you and attack you for years. If you’ve been attacked in the past you’ll probably get attacked in the future.”
It's no laughing matter. That is, unless it's happening to someone else, and then it's a real doozy.
