There is a sign in Lang Park, near the beach in Wollongong, with a warning for passers-by. “Birds swooping!” it reads. “Dismount and walk your bike through this area. Magpies are nesting in this area.” The organisers of the 2022 UCI Road World Championships, which began on Sunday and run all week, must have missed […]
Tag: Magpie
Rook at this mess: French park trains crows to pick up litter
Six crows trained to pick up cigarette ends and rubbish will be put to work next week at a French historical theme park, according to its president. “The goal is not just to clear up, because the visitors are generally careful to keep things clean” but also to show that “nature itself can teach us […]
Land of the birds: why Australia has the world’s greatest diversity of avian life
If you live in Australia, you may not realise how unique and special the birds around you are. Our continent was perhaps the most important for the evolution of modern birds, with a majority of the world’s species tracing their ancestry here. Long ecologically adrift as an island continent, Australia benefited through the evolution of […]
Surge in eye injuries as Melbourne magpies go on attack spree
A penetrated eye that needed surgery is just one of an “extraordinary” spate of magpie-inflicted injuries in Melbourne, and one hospital has issued a warning about the swooping birds. The number of eye injuries caused by the bird has risen significantly, according to the emergency director of the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear hospital, Dr […]
6 Fascinating Facts About the Misunderstood Magpie
Magpies are often maligned as pests, but they’re actually quite interesting birds that are usually overlooked for both their beauty and their intelligence. Here are six interesting facts about magpies. 1. Magpies Don’t Like Shiny Things — They’re Scared of Them Magpies have a reputation as thieves out to steal your shiny jewelry or take […]
The Pathological Moseyers Visit the Bog
I was in Colorado this month during the annual Sax-Zim Bog Birding Festival. It’s sad when even a lovely conflict makes me miss the wonderful local event, so on Saturday I headed to the bog with my little birding dog Pip and my friend Lisa. Earlier in the week, the forecast had called for snow […]
Harriers and Shorties!
My day started in gloomy weather at Wallasea this morning where four Marsh Harriers and a single Ring-tail Hen Harrier entertained me. With the Shorties staying down I headed off in search of a bit more light and found some in Cambridgeshire and the Short-eared Owls came out to play at this venue too. A […]
Study shows one reason why pigeons so rarely crash
A pair of researchers with Harvard University has uncovered one of the secrets behind pigeons’ impressive flight abilities. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, David Williams and Andrew Biewener describe how they videotaped some of the birds flying through an obstacle course they made, and what they found when […]