Magpie Lucky To Be Alive After Being Captured And Set On Fire

There have been thousands of magpie attacks on innocent Australians since the season well and truly got underway at the start of September.

People have been pecked, swooped, scratched and even killed because of these beady-eyed, black and white birds. While it's annoying, scary and painful, there's not much we can do because at the end of the day they're just trying to protect their nest.

But it seems like someone has really taken their anger out on a poor bird in Queensland.

Wildlife Rescue Sunshine Coast

A woman came across a badly burned magpie over the weekend, with fears someone deliberately set it on fire with the intention to kill it.

It was handed to Wildlife Rescue Sunshine Coast, with the animal organisation writing on Facebook: "A young magpie has apparently been captured and set on fire by persons unknown in the Area around Edward Street and Victor Street.

"The magpie had been missing for two days, but was found an hour ago by a woman arriving home from work. She told us she believed it to be the missing magpie.

"What sort of low-life scum would do this?

"If anyone knows anything about this incident please PM us. All information will be dealt with confidentially. Someone needs to be held accountable for this barbaric act."

Wildlife Rescue Sunshine Coast

It's been handed over to Australia Zoo for treatment however the RSCPA hasn't been notified, meaning they can't start an investigation into who was behind it.

Wildlife Rescue Sunshine Coast founder Claire Smith told the Courier Mail there's no way this was some act of nature.

"The areas of burning on the bird, the tails and wings are in keeping with fire, not electrocution," Ms Smith said. "A bird touching 40,000 volts would not have survived. We regularly see this with flying foxes and possums quite often."

If you're getting swooped on your way to or from work, please don't do anything to these birds, as tempting as it might be.

Some people claim you're supposed to wear an ice-cream bucket with sticks or googley eyes on the back to ward off the swoopers but that only works in some cases.

People who are in the firing line so to speak are told to either avoid the area, be aware of where the bird is because it'll usually swoop from behind, walk don't run because they'll perceive that as a threat, dismount from your bike or horse because apparently they're threatening, and never harass them.

Researchers reckon only around nine per cent of magpies swoop during the peak season and they're almost always males.

According to the Royal Zoological Society of NSW, 'smaller - especially younger - people, lone people, and people travelling quickly (i.e., runners and cyclists) appear to be targeted most often by swooping magpies.'

Topics: Community, Animals, Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie