Magpie swooping season is upon us folks, which means trying to dodge those feisty beasts becomes a competitive sport.
We know all the tips; don’t make eye contact, keep walking and don’t stop, wear sunglasses on the back of your head… etc. etc.
And that’s all well and good when the magpies are outside your house, but what happens if, God forbid, they come inside your home?
That’s exactly what happened to one Sydney mom, who woke up to a magpie making itself at home on her bed.
The video has struck fear into the hearts and minds of Aussies everywhere, but it’s the mom’s hilarious response that’s giving everyone a much-needed giggle after watching the terrifying scene unfold.
She goes from scolding the bird to speaking to it in baby-talk
Indy Clinton, a mom-of-two from Sydney’s Northern Beaches, shared the clip to her 1.4 million TikTok followers this week.
“Get out of there! NO!” she says at the start of the clip as she films the magpie on her bed. “GET OUT!” she continues to yell.
The bird then flies around the room and Indy begins to shriek as it looks like it’s coming for her.
She then tries a more stern approach, saying calmly, “Bird — get out.”
But it only gets more erratic and continues to fly around the room. She then goes full-mom-mode and tells off the bird.
“Bird, get out!” she scolds.
“Get the f**k out!” she says with increasing frustration, before backing away from the room to try and lure it out.
With no success so far, she then tries one final approach and puts on her best baby-talk voice. She says sweetly, “C’mon, C’mon baby” and voila — it works a treat!
The magpie leaves her room and flies away, as she and her toddler watch on and both scream as it flies past them.
“Calm down, it’s just a bird”
Indy captioned the clip, which now has 2.9 million views, “Is this bird joking?”
Some people, who clearly don’t live in Australia, told her to “calm down, it’s just a bird.”
But people quickly defended Indy, saying, “Just a bird? It’s a bloody magpie, you clearly have never been swooped by one of these before.”
“Not the mom voice coming out to scold a magpie 😂” someone else joked.
“This is SO scary,” someone else replied while another fan admitted they “would have cried” if this happened to them.
“You need to clean the sheets now,” advised another viewer. “This is my biggest fear,” shared someone else.
“He took swooping too far,” said another.
“This is too funny, you’re like the teachers at primary school when there is a bird in the classroom,” pointed out one woman.
Then this person chimed in, quipping, “Tell me you live in Australia, without telling me you live in Australia.”
Others then gave her suggestions if this happens again. One person suggested, “Just go into the room with a towel and calmly walk towards it. They usually then fly out if you have the window open.”
