It's that time of the year again when everything starts to warm up and springs into bloom. It is also a sign of magpie swooping season.

Urban myths cast our magpies as public enemy number one, when most of the time magpies are pretty chilled. They’re also super smart and loyal to their fam, feeling grief and mourning their dead. This devotion makes magpies awesome parents but it also makes it awkward and terrifying for everyone else, especially in breeding time (swooping season) when they get the most intense, paranoid some would say – swooping unsuspecting folks that cross their paths. Especially the males, who it turns out are just super-overprotective dads.

Getting in a magpie’s way during breeding time (between August and October) can be frightening. A magpie will swoop over your head, clacking its beak to freak you out. Usually, this is just a slightly over-the-top warning, so don’t panic. But if you’re one of the unlucky ones (or the bird just doesn’t like you), it might actually hit you.

Magpie swooping season is relatively short-lived though, with only 4-6 weeks out of the breeding time when magpies are highly territorial protecting their nest. So if you can’t avoid the area altogether, there’s safety in numbers – so move in a group. Magpies are more likely to target individuals.

Do you know of any magpie hotspots?