01/09/2026
The magpie protection program!
I’ve been thinking about this for far too long and I need to know if this is an actual old wives’ tale, scientific fact, or something Australians have collectively decided is true.
Apparently, if you feed and talk to your local magpies, they remember you.
Not only that, but they’ll keep coming back, bring their babies to meet you every spring, and basically put your address on some sort of MAGPIE DO NOT SWOOP REGISTER.
I talk to them like I’m Doctor Harry Cooper.
“Morning mate. How are the kids? Bit windy today. You want something to eat?”
I can open my front door and these bastards will practically walk into my house like they’re popping over for a cuppa.
When I worked in a deli, I’d get food scraps stuck in the tread of my work boots, they got so comfortable with me that I could literally lift my foot up and THEY’D PECK THE FOOD OUT OF MY BOOT.
That’s not a bird anymore. That’s a colleague.
So now I’m convinced there’s an entire magpie communication system happening above us that humans aren’t aware of.
Some magpie sitting in a gumtree with a tiny headset:
“Gary, cyclist approaching from the east. Fluoro helmet. Fourteen cable ties.”
“Copy that, Dazza. Has he provided snacks?”
“Negative.”
“Has he ever said good morning?”
“Negative.”
“Righto. F**k him up.”
Surely this is happening.
Because every spring I see people riding around with cable ties sticking out of their helmets like they’ve strapped an upside-down Hills Hoist to their head,
and I’m thinking,
Have you tried entering negotiations with the magpie government?
Maybe you need to establish yourself as an ally.
I’m basically running a tiny suburban witness protection program for myself and paying protection money in snacks.
Please tell me other people have heard this.
Do your local magpies know you? Do they bring their babies around? Have you somehow negotiated immunity from swooping?
Or have I just spent far too much time imagining an organised magpie surveillance network operating from the gumtrees?
Stay Unhinged, Legends ✌🏼