Sydney man's homemade owl scarecrow attracts worshipping magpies

Giulio Cuzzilla was trying to frighten away the magpies who were picking at his cat's food bowl when he got the idea to make a homemade owl scarecrow.

But instead of scaring the birds he noticed them creeping closer over the week.

He said they started flocking to his Bankstown backyard to bow and warble at the nightmarish owl like they were "worshipping".

Magpies continued to congregate around the googly green-eyed creation for a month before a bout of heavy rain caused the head to fall off, Mr Cuzzilla said.

His video, posted to TikTok, has attracted almost 10,000 comments with one suggesting the magpies may be squawking with laughter at the effigy.

"Was the owl made from memory?" one commenter asked.

"It's a biblically accurate magpie," another said.