{"id":228806,"date":"2025-10-21T01:29:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T01:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/228806\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T01:29:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T01:29:15","slug":"aussie-cyclists-extreme-attempt-to-avoid-swooping-magpies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/228806\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie cyclist&#8217;s extreme attempt to avoid swooping magpies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s that time of year where spring is blooming, magpies are swooping and one Canberra cyclist is fighting back with flair.<\/p>\n<p>Steph Skinner is turning heads and dodging angry birds with a helmet designed to outsmart the swift swoopers.<\/p>\n<p>Steph took to social media to document her &#8220;independent testing&#8221; on which strategies actually work &#8211; with some hilarious outcomes.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/9now.nine.com.au\/today\/sign-up-for-the-today-show-newsletter\/57b05181-ffe6-4143-9ddf-54d56d42db7f\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/7ce16070-63aa-42bd-a3ee-448b73a4dc54.png\"   alt=\"TODAY 2023\"\/>Subscribe to the Today newsletter here. (Nine)<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/be510892-c7e7-4f56-a665-8bbf48f76905.png\"   alt=\"Steph Skinner magpie protection bird bike helmet Today Show October 21, 2025\"\/>Steph Skinner has been documenting her methods to try and protect from magpie attacks. (Today)<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/9now.nine.com.au\/today\/dangerzone-singer-kenny-loggins-slams-donald-trump-for-using-iconic-80s-anthem-in-video\/b6c3028d-20f5-4038-b255-b5d6a31ddf6b\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Eighties rocker slams Trump&#039;s use of iconic song\">Eighties rocker slams Trump&#8217;s use of iconic song<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was pretty effective on the first magpie I tested on,&#8221; Steph told Today about her &#8216;seagull&#8217; helmet (pictured above).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But this second guy that I&#8217;ve been testing on, he is savage &#8211; he goes for the ears.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Steph said it was hilarious to see how badly her seagull helmet didn&#8217;t actually work on the lagpies &#8211; who are the &#8220;clear rulers of Australian skies&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I mean, seagulls are just no match for them &#8211; it&#8217;s that simple,&#8221; she said.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>Steph has tried a variety of different approaches to protecting her head from swooping magpies during her long bike rides.<\/p>\n<p>But she revealed a surprise technique which was actually very effective.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/4968bfcb-6c6b-439a-af5c-16bf6260a116.jpeg\"   alt=\"Magpies can remember up to 30 faces.\"\/>With the warmer weather comes an increase in magpie attacks. (Nine Archives)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;One of the bits of advice I got was actually a giant wig and this has been very effective,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s just about the only thing that&#8217;s worked on the really savage magpies.\ufeff&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Steph recommends wearing sunglasses and a hat to protect your head and face from the nasty magpies.<\/p>\n<p>But there is also an online site called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.magpiealert.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Magpie Alert\">Magpie Alert<\/a>\ufeff, which advises where the nesting hotspots are which you might want to avoid.<\/p>\n<p>Do you have your own method of avoiding magpie attacks? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/16CDSZqC7Y\/?mibextid=wwXIfr\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Let us know\ufeff\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Let us know\ufeff<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s that time of year where spring is blooming, magpies are swooping and one Canberra cyclist is fighting&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-228806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}