
It’s that time of year again, that prelude to Spring… magpie swooping season. Do you really understand these birds and how to live with them and mitigate swooping?
4ZZZ's Eliot Rifkin chatted about magpies with Gisela Kaplan, Emeritus Professor in animal behaviour from the University of New England, as well as an author of some best selling books.
For a deep dive...
To visit Professor Gisela Kaplan's bio page as well as see her bibliography of her award winning books on the animal behaviour of Magpies, Orangutans, Dogs and of course Native Australian Birds. One of Gisela's many books is Cognition and Behaviour of Australian Native Birds. Here's the wikipedia on the Australian Magpie as well as Birdlife Australia's profile on our magpie.
Here's a government websites which gives tips on how to avoid being swooped and Magpie Alert! a social website which tracks aggressive magpies as well as another crowdsourced online map which tracks where the currently swooping magpies. If you'd like to delve into Magpie intelligence, read the "Nature versus nurture: the key to magpie intelligence" article.

Your 9AM Zedlines with Stella, Em, and Alec.

Your 8am Zedlines with Vivek, Sarah and Alec.

Your 11AM Zedlines with Cass and Hailey

Your 10AM Zedlines with Lachlan and Georgie

Your 9am Zedlines with Hailey and Cass.

Your 8AM Zedlines with Lachlan and Georgie

Your 9AM Zedlines with Dane and Jules

Your 8AM Zedlines with Zayna, Clem & Dane

Your 11am Zedlines with Ellen, Sarah and Alannah

Your 10am Zedlines with Niamh and Miko
(Image via Wikimedia Commons)

Your 9AM Zedlines with Ellen, Sarah and Alannah
(Image via University of Queensland)

Your 8AM Zedlines with Miko and Niamh
(Image via Wikimedia Media Commons)

Your 11AM Zedlines with Asha, Ava and Dan (image via Flickr)

Your 10AM Zedlines with Charlie and Yuchen (Image via Flickr)

Your 9AM Zedlines with Dan, Ava and Asha (Image via Wikimedia Commons)

Your 8AM Zedlines with Charlie and Yuchen (Image via Flickr)

Your 9AM Zedlines with Stella and Em

Your 8am Zedlines with Sarah, Vivek and Alec.

Your 11AM Zedlines with Cass and Hailey

Your 10AM Zedlines with Georgie and Lachlan

Your 9AM Zedlines with Cass and Hailey

Your 8AM Zedlines with Lachlan and Georgie

Your 11AM Zedlines with Jules, Clementine and Livinia

Your 10AM Zedlines with Dane, Livinia and Jules

Your 8AM Zedlines with Clementine, Jules and Dane

Your 11am Zedlines with Yuchen, Dan, and Charlie

Your 10AM Zedlines with Asha, Ava and Ethan

Your 9am Zedlines with Dan, Charlie and Yuchen image source Bernard DUPONT via flickr