i LOVE it....

[joey]

Hostile Grackles Attack People in Houston 2 hours, 57 minutes ago



HOUSTON - Like a scene from the horror movie "The Birds," large black grackles are swooping down on downtown Houston and attacking people's heads, hair and backs.



Authorities closed off a sidewalk after the aggressive birds, which can have 2-foot wingspans, flew out of magnolia trees Monday in front of the County Administration Building.

"They were just going crazy," said constable Wilbert Jue, who works at the building. "They were attacking everybody that walked by."

The grackles zeroed in on a lawyer who shooed a bird away before he tripped and injured his face, Jue said. The lawyer was treated for several cuts.

It appears that the birds are protecting their offspring. On Monday a young grackle had fallen out of its nest and adult birds attacked people who got too close, Jue said.

Another bird attacked a deputy county clerk.

"I hit him with a bottle," said Sylvia Velasquez. "The other birds came, and one attacked my blouse and on my back."

Two women came to help her after she fell to the ground, and the birds attacked them as well. The group escaped by running into the building.

"This is a very Hitchcock kind of story. Very Tippi Hedren," said downtown worker Laura Aranda Smith, referring to one of the stars of Alfred Hitchcock's move "The Birds."


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:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[RaVeNo888o]

wow :P what are these birds like? Its amusing but somewhat sad because the birds must resort to living in such unideal conditions

[joey]

Grackles are very aggressive birds that sort of resemble crows---smaller. I once witnessed a grackle kill a young sparrow by literally driving it's beak into the skull of the sparrow.

Sad, yes, for the grackles---this will give them (humans) an excuse to kill the birds.

[bistrobob85]

I hope they leave the birds alone... while i secretly breed thousands of grackles...

[lolaophidia]

Funny bistro bob! An army of grackles (when they eat fruit like the plums and cherries in my yard, that's really scary!)...

I ran into a situation at work a couple of years ago at work where a fledgeling mocking bird was landing on people and following them around looking for someone to feed it. I thought it was hilarious (it was a cute LITTLE baby bird after all) until I saw a woman literally throw herself to the ground screaming in fear. She scraped up her legs pretty badly on the sidewalk. The bird had been following people around for a while (an hour or so) and some people were talking about killing it. So I caught the bird, put it in a box and drove it to my house on my lunch hour to release. I've got a large wooded backyard with plenty of fruit trees, so I didn't think the bird would have much trouble finding food.
I hated to remove it from the area where it's parents were, but they weren't going to feed that chick much longer and it had probably driven them bonkers begging so enthusiastically.

Here's a link to a site on grackles for those of you who want to better understand your enemy...

grackles... scary! (http://www.birds.cornell.edu/BOW/COMGRA/)

another link...

grackle facts.... (http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Quiscalus_quiscula.html)