Unusual video shows two magpies facing off red-bellied black snake

Anjii Moores was on her daily walk when she filmed the animal interaction on a block of land in Spring Farm, Macarthur on Saturday.

In the video, the birds circled around the snake before the reptile made a lunge at them, prompting them to fly away.

Ms Moores said the highly-venomous snake bit one of the magpies before she started filming.

"Before I filmed it, it (the snake) got one of them. Then when I walked back, the magpies were in a vacant block and the snake had gone. It definitely got one of the magpies," she told Australian Community Media (ACM).

"I didn't want to stick around to see what happened because I hate both magpies and snakes!"

Ms Moores said she was confused as to why the magpies were provoking the snake as there were no trees nearby.

"They must have had a nest or something nearby, I've never seen magpies have a go at them [snakes]. They must've felt threatened,' she said.

Ms Moores said she see has seen more snakes in Spring Farm than she did when she lived in the bush previously.

"I've probably seen a good 10 snakes since I've been here there in five months. Quite a few brown snakes in that same spot. Everyone's building their homes so they're pretty out in the open," she said.

Meanwhile, magpies are not a pest and do not swoop in the area, according to Ms Moores.

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"Magpies get a really bad wrap for swooping and hurting people but they're protectors, I suppose, at the end of the day. It was pretty interesting. I was voting for the magpies," Ms Moores said.

"So they're not so bad after all! Because they tried to shoo the snake away. So it made me look at them in a different way now. I'm petrified of birds but I guess more petrified of snakes!"

Red-bellied black snakes are highly venomous to humans but bites are rare as it is usually a placid and fairly docile snake.

Although its venom can cause significant illness, no deaths have been recorded from its bite.