Australian magpies are apparently hyper-agressive during breeding season and attack people by swooping down on their heads. A biker in Australia had a fatal crash into a fence post during a magpie attack. Has anybody here been attacked by an Australian magpie? Wikipedia says that the species is protected, but individuals that attack humans can be killed. This story references a Sydney magpie that had a hit put on it after 40+ attacks on people. Swooping magpie shot by Sydney council after 'particularly aggressive' attacks
Yes, you'd be hard-pressed to find an Australian who hasn't been swooped by a magpie. That said, magpies are exceptionally intelligent animals and will remember faces. They do learn who they can trust, especially if people feed them
Here is the story about the unfortunate cyclist and the magpie: Australian dies while fleeing swooping magpie
Magpies are the semi-dangerous native animals we keep in the cities so tourists won’t go near the actually dangerous native animals we have out the back. Keep walking calmly as you’re being swooped by a magpie and we might let you graduate to being attacked by a goanna or a kangaroo.
In most countries the danger increases by taxonomic level, so going up to tigers and elephants. In Australia it goes in reverse, with jellyfish at the highest level.
