We are encouraging residents to take care in outdoor areas where swooping native birds may be active.
Breeding season for native birds has begun and is expected to continue until the middle of November.
Many native birds, such as magpies and masked lapwings (also known as spur-winged plovers), seek to protect their eggs and young during breeding season by swooping.
Community members can minimise the risk of being swooped by avoiding nesting areas where birds are swooping where possible, or protecting the head and eyes and moving through the area quickly.
Residents are advised to contact our Customer Service team on 03 5272 5272 to report a bird swooping on City of Greater Geelong-managed land.
We will place warning signs at the site and assess the behaviour of the bird.
All native birds are protected under the Wildlife Act 1975, so please do not harm or scare swooping birds, or interfere with their nests.
Councillor Elise Wilkinson, deputy chair of the Council’s Environment and Circular Economy portfolio:
Swooping birds are likely to be found across urban and rural areas.
Native birds are an important part of our natural environment and are rightly afforded legal protection.
We should all be aware of potential swooping risks and prepared to modify our behaviour outdoors when needed.
By doing simple things such as protecting our head and either avoiding or moving through a breeding area quickly, we can reduce our chances of being swooped.
While swooping birds can be alarming, the behaviour is confined to approximately 10 per cent of birds and it’s rare for a bird to cause an injury.
Each breeding pair will normally swoop for four to six weeks until their chicks can fly.
The Victorian Government’s shows hot spots where people have been swooped during the current or previous breeding season.
