Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/09/29/watch-a-magpie-chasing-a-boy-on-his-bike-is-like-a-scene-from-the-birds.html
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This is Australia. Everything is trying to kill you in Australia.
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Kid should have been taught to salute. None of this would have happened, then. Inadequate parenting. 
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Scooter, not bike. Man, who is editing these headlines today?
More like that episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show.
when i was younger than that kid is now, around 4 or 5, i saw an egg on the ground that had been blown out of its nest. i bent over to look at it, and a blue jay came swooping down and started to attack me. pecking my head, flapping around my face. i was terrified. and i am here to tell you that more than 50 years later i can still remember it. i still hate birds, and fucking blue jays in particular. that kid is not going to forget that experience and hopefully he’ll shrug it off. eventually.
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they came back for a second pass on bikes friend - but no disparage for not paying attention, peace.
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It’s better when they want to fly alongside your motorcycle
or your boat
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For those not in Oz nor birders, please note that the Australian “magpie” (a passerine) is not a corvid like the varieties in North America and Eurasia.
Which is, all in all, good for the blokes in the video. The corvids might have mobbed them.
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this made me laugh both times i watched it. i am a bad person.
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Having been swooped on by a North American crow, it was a pretty similar experience.
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Aren’t corvids passerines? When you say,
how do you mean?
I recall hiking in the Blue Mountains, and ended up on a rock formation called Castle Rock (or some such), which was a popular spot for people and magpies alike. These birds were pretty aggressive about your picnic stuff, though I’d stop short of saying bullies. Gorgeous up close, but that’s not how a fellow hiker felt about them . AT ALL.
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I know what you want, the magpies have come…
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Both Australian magpies and corvids are passerines, but magpies belong to the family artimidae rather than corvidae.
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At least it wasn’t a wedge-tailed eagle, surely the most badass bird in Australia if not the world.
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I don’t understand, why do they attack random people? It doesn’t seem that two passers by with scooters can pose any risk for them.
Over here (central Italy) climate change during the last 10-15 years brought big seagulls that nest on higher buildings roofs and are very protective of their eggs. They’re really big, and they indeed do attack, but only if feeling threatened say by someone hanging their laundry on the roof. That kid however doesn’t seem to be any dangerous for that bird, unless he did something like stealing an egg.
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Beach in FL as a kid with my 8 y/o little sister. She made the mistake of giving a gull a cracker. 2 min later, she goes to eat her PBJ and 5-6 gull come and start pecking for her lunch. This freaks her out so she starts running, trying to protect her head by…covering it with her PBJ.
Bro: Just let it go and you can have half mine.
Sis: Noooo! Then they’ll tear my hair out!!!
Bro: Okay, then just run towards me and get down (holding a long beach shovel and smiling in a way a 10 y/o does when he knows he’s about to invent the sport of Birdball since parents are swimming and can’t stop him)
Sis: Okay!
I swear I was able to clobber them at least a few times before they moved onto easier prey
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They have personalities. Some of them are just assholes.
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Yeah, I never understood why my Australian friend hated magpies with a passion. I quite like the buggers. But then I learned that they’re not actually the same species and how aggressive they are.
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