Bird Attack Leaves 4-Year-Old Australian Boy Blind in One Eye

TOOWOOMBA, Australia – A four-year-old Australian boy has been left blinded in his left eye after being attacked by a vicious bird in Toowoomba, 80 miles west of Brisbane, The Toowoomba Chronicle reported Thursday.

Seth McInnes was riding his bike in a public park with his father on Sunday afternoon, when an Australian magpie attacked.

"He was riding his bike back towards me and I saw it coming down really fast," his father Chris McInnes told The Chronicle, adding that the bird hovered in his son's face during the attack.

"He had a little scratch over his eye. But when I looked in his eye it was full of blood. He had to have four stitches in his eyeball. It hit him right in the center of his eye."

Magpies generally become aggressive in Australia's spring season, swooping and attacking those who approach their nests -- with bike riders a particular target.