What do you get when you cross Spacemen, a magpie and some glorious springtime weather?
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Why you get a viral video of course!
The start of September in Australia coincides with the start of magpie breeding season, which leads to the infamous magpie swoop as the male looks to protect the young from perceived threats.
These Australian icons are very intelligent, and can remember faces for years.
For one unfortunate Parkes rugby league player, Jack Skinner, his face was the only memorable one on the field as a particularly protective (read: vindictive) magpie dad swooped over 10 times in 45 seconds as Jack was minding his own business on the wing (pun intended) before he was pulled off the field.
Pioneer Oval is obviously the scene of a magpie nest somewhere nearby, but the viral element of the video came about because out of the 26 players on the field it was only Jack the bird was interested in targeting.
The original Facebook video, posted by local page Bush Footy Yarns, which has just over 8000 followers, had 420,000 views and 4,700 comments.
After nrl.com picked it up, the video went to the next level, racking up 2.5 million views (and most other mainstream media picked it up as well) and drawing comments from NRL players such as Ryan Papenhuyzen, Jordan Rapana and Bailey Simonsson.
Keep your eyes peeled next time you go to Pioneer Oval!
