Magpie Attacks Drone in Queensland During Swooping Season

A magpie was not happy when a drone entered its territory at Runaway Bay in Queensland, on September 15.

Dylan Bishop was flying their drone over the bay when a grumpy magpie began to attack it.

“It’s weird for a magpie to take a stab at a drone in general, much less 100m or so over water,” Bishop told Storyful.

Bishop began steering the drone back to base at full throttle when the bird attacked.

“While I was a little worried about the drone, I know it can recover from a roll pretty quick but the magpie would get really hurt on the blades,” Bishop said.

Eventually the bird called of the ambush.

“The bird didn’t follow it to the ground once the drone had kind of shown it was faster and there was no damage to the drone or bird. Lucky call, since a collision would probably have harmed the magpie,” Bishop said.

Some magpies become territorial during breeding season from August to October, and are well known for aggressive swooping behaviour during this time. Credit: @imdylanbishop via Storyful