Originally Posted by Machka

Not here, but in Australia. In Australia, the magpies are particularly aggressive, especially when their eggs are hatching, and they will dive-bomb cyclists. Magpies are big enough that they can do some serious damage. So the Australian cyclists claim that if you attach two zip-ties to your helmet so that they stick up like antennae that somehow wards the magpies off and they either won't dive-bomb you, or if they do, they'll veer off before they hit your helmet, face, neck, etc.

I was there in hatching season and witnessed these magpies dive-bombing my cycling partner many times, but for whatever reason, they left me alone. Rowan and I speculate that maybe it had to do with my braid, and perhaps my braid looked like a snake. Who knows!