Adelaide man reveals insane hack as magpie swooping season looms

It is the low-flying hazard that is so ingrained in Australian culture that a Bluey episode was devoted to it.

As winter turns into spring, Aussies best get used to aerial attacks from dive-bombing black-and-white birds.

However, while cyclists, scooter riders and passers-by brace themselves for the aerial onslaught, a self-styled magpie whisperer from Adelaide believes he has cracked how to avoid being swooped.

Mark Muscat, known as The Magpie Man, has lifelong rapport with the mischievous birds and claims a proud record of avoiding swoops.

The 66-year-old grew up around magpies and said that as a child one even appeared to adopt his family, becoming a regular visitor to the family homestead.

And he believes this has given him the ideal way of avoiding the dreaded swoop.

“My mother would always buy big bags of wheat and throw it out in the yard for the birds and one magpie almost ended up living with us,” Mr Muscat said.

“That was when it all started for me. I would apparently sit there and sing with it and from them I’ve always been able to warble like a magpie”

Mr Muscat’s hidden skill landed him an appearance on Australia’s Got Talent, a social media following and even acting roles voicing magpies in cartoons.

But he said it had also scored him a bizarre immunity to swoop attacks – even claiming to have successfully dissuaded an oncoming bird.

“What I tend to do is give them the eye and if they do swoop, I will just sing to them and they stop in their tracks,” he said.

“I have no idea what I’m saying to them, but somehow it works. They hear me warble and just stop – I don’t know if they suddenly think I’m a magpie too.”

Mr Muscat has several social media accounts under The Magpie Man name where he has shared his uncanny ability with the world.

He said the key to making a perfect magpie call was to project the sound from the back of your throat, rather than your mouth.