
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 8AM Zedlines with Livinia, Clem and Mack

Your 11am Zedlines with Ellen, Niamh and Alannah

Your 10am Zedlines with Ellen, Alannah and Niamh

Your 9am Zedlines with Alannah and Niamh
Your 8am Zedlines with Ellen and Alannah

Your 11AM Zedlines with Asha and Yuchen (Image via Wikimedia Commons)

Your 10AM Zedlines with Ava and Ethan (Image via Wikimedia Commons)

Your 9AM Zedlines with Asha and Yuchen (Image via Public Domain Pictures)

Your 8AM Zedlines with Ava and Ethan (Image via Flickr)

Your 10am Zedlines with Vivek, Stella and Eden.

Your 8am zedlines with Em, Stella and Eden

Your 11am Zedlines with Cass and Georgie

Your 10AM Zedlines with Hailey and Lachlan

Your 9am Zedlines with Georgie and Cass.

Your 8AM Zedlines with Lachlan and Hailey.

Your 10AM Zedlines with Mack
IMG: Supplied from infinityplanet.com

Your 9AM Zedlines with Mack
IMG: From Wikimedia under CC4.0

Your 8AM Zedlines with Mack
IMG: From Wikimedia under CC4.0

Your 11am Zedlines with Alannah and Ellen

Your 10am Zedlines with Miko, Alannah and Ellen

Your 9am Zedlines with Ellen, Miko and Alannah

Your 8am Zedlines with Miko, Alannah and Ellen

Your 11AM Zedlines with Asha, Ava and Yuchen (Image via Wikimedia Commons)

Your 10AM Zedlines with Charlie, Dan and Ethan (Image via Wikimedia Commons)

Your 9AM Zedlines with Asha, Ava and Yuchen (Image via Flickr)

Your 8AM Zedlines with Charlie, Dan and Ethan (Image via Flickr)

Your 9AM Zedlines with Eden, Em, Vivek, and Alec

Your 8AM Zedlines with Alec, Eden, and Em