Born to be wild: Magpie survey wins maths prize

An eight-year-old student from Blue Mountains Grammar School investigated this question through mathematics, finding some surprising results. Her research led to a first-place win at the NSW Investigating with Mathematics competition, and an opportunity to present her findings at the annual MENSA conference.

Emma Glenfield was prompted to investigate magpies after noticing a pattern of swooping behaviour from "Mr Swoopsalot" - a resident magpie at her school.

"Last year I observed where he swooped, and who he swooped and formed a hypothesis that he targeted tall, solid males who were bald or had thin hair on top," she said. "I wondered if all magpies are like this."

Emma developed a survey to investigate the link between people's appearance and their experience of being swooped. After hundreds of Blue Mountains residents participated in the research, her survey went viral - eventually attracting 20,573 Australians to take part. The large sample size resulted in a 99 per cent confidence level and a 1 per cent margin of error in her findings.

READ MORE:

It was also the first time in Australia that research focused on the link between people's appearance and their experience of being swooped.

The research found that males are slightly more likely to be swooped than females. People's physical characteristics increases their risk of being swooped, with those over 1.8 metres tall twice as likely to be swooped in the last 12 months than those less than 1.6 metres tall (21 per cent compared to 10 per cent). A high body mass index also increases risk.

Surprisingly, a person's hairstyle also has an influence, with people who were bald or "thin on top" being twice as likely to be swooped than people with long hair.

Respondents were also asked about their attitudes towards magpies - with six times as many people stating they loved magpies than those who hated them.

Emma also used mathematics to investigate a range of other magpie features such as egg size, territory size, magpie weight, life cycle and swooping behaviour. Her conclusion was that magpies don't mean to hurt us, they are just protecting their babies.

"It was really fun doing this project. I've been amazed that so many people wanted to talk about magpies and get involved. I hope my project helps people understand magpies better, and that people will understand that magpie dads are just looking after their babies.

"If you take time to make friends with magpies before swooping season, they will learn that you are not dangerous but are their friend. Magpies are great creatures."