Pedestrians can protect their heads from magpie attacks by using a hat or an umbrella, or avoid areas frequented by the birds altogether, New Taipei City officials said yesterday.
The comments came days after a video showing a magpie diving at a person walking a dog sparked public interest, with New Taipei City Councilor Lu Chia-kai (呂家愷) calling on the authorities to warn the public about the birds.
The bird shown in the video is a Formosan blue magpie, New Taipei City Animal Protection and Quarantine Office Director Yang Shu-fang (楊淑方) said.
Photo courtesy of the New Taipei City Animal Protection and Health Inspection Office
Formosan blue magpies are a class 3 protected species, meaning disturbing or harming their hatchlings and nests is a crime punishable by a two-year prison sentence or an NT$500,000 fine, New Taipei City Agriculture Bureau Director Lee Wen (李玟) said.
Magpies rear their young for five to six weeks and can be aggressive to perceived intruders near their nesting area during this period, Yang said.
People walking near an area claimed by a magpie should not turn their back to the bird and protect themselves, she said.
The office has received three reports of magpie attacks in Sansia (三峽), Shulin (樹林) and Sindian (新店) districts, she said.
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
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