How terrible (if dealing with a human) their protective cry and behaviour is though..... as a small child I used it to find their young and "play" with them. They pretend to have a broken wing and run away from their ground nest, whilst making a "I'm in great pain" cry. Thus making themselves more attractive to a would be predator than their, undiscovered, babies. Parental aultruism. I suppose if the predator did actually attack them, they'd pull out their "a ha! Gotcha...I'm fit as a fiddle" guns. Hope it worked.
