Accidental Magpie God

In the suburbs of western Sydney, Giulio Cuzzilla embarked on a mission to thwart magpies from stealing his cat’s kibble.

 

Crafting a homemade “owl” scarecrow seemed like a reasonable solution. Magpies are still protected as an endangered species, which rules out many options for dealing with the intruders. And the larger birds are a natural predator for magpies. Yahoo reports:

But instead of scaring off magpies, the erected image began to draw them. They would land in front of the effigy, returning each day until a storm destroyed it. While Giulio’s owl attracted daily magpies, his video of two magpies squawking at the image drew over 3.7 million views. The caption to his post is telling:

Accidentally being the key word here. Because no one would ever make one intentionally.