My wife and I were swooped by a dollarbird today walking along the road where it follows the creek and there are tall, old trees. Presumably it was defending it's nest, they can be very loud and scary though no contact was made. Our local magpies nest close to our house, they never swoop us! I have been swooped by shrike thrushes before. Has anyone else had this experience? I hope they will stop when the young fledge and leave the nest.
Not with Dollar Birds, Greg, but with Dusky Woodswallows, Grey Shrike-thrushes, Willie Wagtails & Brown Goshawks. Australian Magpies where we live on the s.e. slopes of the Mt Lofty Ranges SA have never bothered us. We had been living in our house for about 7 years before they built nests in trees about 30 m from the house. Prior to that (& since) they'd been feeding in non-breeding season on the ground closer to the house). I presume they found we weren't a threat & so built nests in trees as the trees grew sufficiently tall. The first four species had probably built nests or were part way through building nests before they first saw me strolling through the developing revegetation. That's my hypothesis, anyway.