“It’s not a pigeon, is it?” The bird crying in front of the house has become frighteningly different

“She was crying so loudly and flying around, I looked at her and we made eye contact, and then she kicked me in the head with both feet.”

This is what Ms. Park experienced recently when she was walking to work near a train station. The culprit: a crow. She was not familiar with the presence of crows in front of the train station토토사이트, but she said that she was attacked in a ridiculous way.

There are many stories of people being grabbed by the hair or woken up by crows and magpies in the city center.

Magpies [123rf]

Magpies and crows, along with pigeons and sparrows, are birds that live in close proximity to humans in urban centers. Since ancient times, the cries of magpies have been considered as a welcome guest and crows as an ominous sign.

While the attacks of magpies and crows can be disconcerting, they have long since been categorized as harmful to humans. In 2000, they were designated as noxious birds that cause damage to agriculture, forestry, and buildings.

Magpie and crow attacks are most common in the springtime. This is usually the “migration period”, when nests are built for laying in February and the young birds leave the nest in May and June to become independent. This increases the likelihood that agitated parents will attack humans.

Crow [Pixabay]

Property damage is also not uncommon. According to data from KEPCO obtained by Rep. Lee Ju-hwan’s office, there were a total of 133 power outages caused by magpies and other birds between 2018 and 2020. Of these, 93 (69.9%) were caused by magpies.

The damage is even increasing. The number of outages caused by birds has increased from 33 in 2018 to 48 in 2019 and 52 in 2020.

In Jeju Island, more than 20,000 magpies are massively culled every year. This is because they peck at citrus and other fruit trees and are designated as an ecosystem-disturbing species. In 1989, 60 magpies were artificially introduced to Jeju Island, which had no magpies at all, and since 2020, the population has grown to more than 100,000.

Magpie house on a telephone pole [Image via internet].

Despite the increasing damage caused by magpies, experts believe that their numbers have not increased. There are few areas where magpies do not live, and they have been living alongside humans for so long that they cannot be accurately counted.

“Magpies are a species that can live around humans, so it’s possible that their population has increased,” says Sung Ha-cheol, a professor of biology at Chonnam National University, “but it varies from region to region in terms of national distribution.”

Globally, magpie numbers have remained stable. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reports that magpie populations are stable worldwide, with no apparent decline in reproductive adult birds.

[United Nations].

Nevertheless, urbanization is a prominent cause of magpie damage and conflict. While natural enemies such as snakes and birds of prey have declined, magpies and other birds have flocked to urban spaces where food sources such as human waste have become more plentiful, and the lack of greenery has caused damage to humans.

Samyuk University researchers tested the distance response of 36 magpies in six urban centers in Seoul from August to October 2021, and concluded that magpies have adapted to urban areas. They also emphasized the role of urban forests as a habitat for magpies. Of the 59 magpies the researchers observed, 52 were found in urban forests, which was 7.42 times higher than the number of magpies found in the city center (7).

“Wild birds play a very important role as top primary consumers in urban ecosystems where terrestrial top predators have been largely extirpated,” the researchers concluded, adding, “Securing habitat for wild birds in urban ecosystems is essential.”