TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A prescient professor took these photos of Taiwan blue magpies dive-bombing students in Taipei.
On Thursday (Sept. 9), the government unveiled its beefed-up “Quintuple Stimulus Vouchers” (振興五倍券) program to boost Taiwan's economy as it recovers from the summer's soft lockdown. The new vouchers come in a set of 10 notes divided into three denominations, including three NT$1,000 bills, two NT$500 bills, and five NT$200 bills.
Featured prominently in the center of all three voucher denominations is the Taiwan blue magpie, with its wings outstretched and its long tail feathers drooping downward. Due to its aggressive nature, the creature has been dubbed the "Taiwan version of Angry Birds."
In early May, Chinese Culture University professor Wang Hsiang-yu (王翔郁) took photos of the blue-feathered fowl strafing students who walked past their nests on the university's campus on Yangmingshan, garnering over 14,000 likes. The photos went viral again on Thursday after the government announced the bird would be featured on the new vouchers.
Wang wrote that he had posted photos of the birds attacking students to enable them to share images of themselves being tagged on the head by a "national treasure." The incidents were captured in the midst of the birds' breeding season, which runs from March to July, when they are the most territorial.
Magpie striking head of unsuspecting student. (Facebook, Wang Hsiang-yu photo)
Magpie swoops in on hapless student. (Facebook, Wang Hsiang-yu photo)
