Man claims he’s ‘targeted’ by the same bird after multiple attacks on his way home from work

Oops, the bird did it again. 

A man claims that a territorial bird has singled him out after attacking him day after day on his route home from work. 

Alejandro Rios, 25, lives in Brisbane, Australia, and bikes home from his kitchen catering job every day, as SWNS reported. 

Rios said he was first pecked on the head by a dive-bombing magpie bird on Sept. 20 — and he thought it was an odd occurrence. 

“The first time, I felt something knock at my head,” he said. 

“I was a bit worried … thought a piece of fruit had fallen off a tree or someone had hit me.”

Rios said he soon realized he had become the bird’s target after he was attacked multiple times on his same route home. 

“By the end, it was funny because I knew it was coming,” he said to SWNS about recognizing that he would be hit more than once. 

The kitchen worker, who is wearing a helmet in the video that captured the attack, said he makes sure the bird doesn’t hit his eyes. 

Rios also added zip ties to his helmet to ensure the bird won’t hurt his head in any capacity. 

Magpies are believed to remember faces, something Rios said he recalled when realizing what type of bird was going after him.

Magpies will attack things they see as a threat; they recall faces and tend to keep memories for long periods of time, according to the Government of South Australia Department for Environment and Water. 

Also, nearly all “swoops” on people are carried out by male magpies that are defending their eggs and chicks, which are in the nest for about six to eight weeks between July and November, said the website of the Queensland government.

In a writeup called “Stay safe from swooping magpies,” the same site said, “Magpies often become more aggressive as the chicks become older, but swooping usually stops once the young have left the nest.”

It added, “A magpie’s defensive behavior can range from a non-contact swoop with or without beak snapping … to pecking, dive-bombing and sometimes front-on attacks from the ground.”

Rios said he originally thought the bird didn’t like him because he was riding a bike — but soon realized that couldn’t be true, as other people biked past him and were not attacked. 

Regardless, Rios said he considers the bird a friend even if the animal really doesn’t like him.

“It’s a bit of a friend and a bit of a nemesis,” he said. 

“I love animals, so I want to say it’s my friend — but it really, really hates me.”