Reader Ben L. sent us this video that youtuber Mila Z. captured of very territorial bird in Golden Gate Park, shot in June.
As you’ll see in the video, the bird stealthily swoops down and attacks the heads of unsuspecting pedestrians as they stroll by on MLK Drive near the north Botanical Garden entrance near Stow Lake. (A victim left a comment on this story telling us she was attached twice while jogging by!)
Mila observed this behavior for awhile and deduced that this was just one rogue bird.
“Very few of nesting blackbirds actually attack people. There were dozens nests around, but only this one bird kept attacking people,” Mila wrote in the video comments.
She also wryly observed that “Some people behaved much crazier than the bird.”
The reason for the attacks? As you’ll see at the end of the video, the bird’s behavior was an attempt to protect its nest, which had two baby birds in it.
Sarah B.
HA HA! Saw this on ‘Right This Minute’ this morning!!
All you have to do to avoid being ‘bombed’ is put your sunglasses on backwards and it’ll look like you have eyes on *both* sides of your head.
This looks like it should be on America’s Funniest Home Videos! LoL
I believe this is actually by Stow Lake, on the northern side of it. Why do I know this? I got attacked twice. Scared the mess out of me when jogging by. I took to wildly waving my arms around when I ran through after the 2nd time. 🙂 Dang it.
hilarious! maybe he’s making a human hair nest.
@Sarah – thanks for clarifying. Sorry you got hammered – but nice defensive running techniques! 🙂
Sarah B.
Nothing against looking out for offspring, but for how much longer must good citizens tolerate this harassment and battery? Meanie the Blackbird is almost as aggressive as the angry territorial pushers of double-wide assault strollers in Noe Valley!
Ha! To be precise, it was Stow Lake Drive East. Just by the pedestrian path over to the island where the Pagoda is. 🙂
I’ve been getting bombarded almost daily this summer by a red-winged blackbird during my morning fitness runs, out here in the ‘burbs of Chicago. I get dive-bombed by it in the same manner the Brewer’s (?) blackbird is seen doing to the unsuspecting walkers in the video recorded at Stow Lake. I know it’s coming when I hear its warning cries alerting me not to come any closer to its nest (located in a chokecherry tree) as I approach the aerie during my runs. Attacks by red-wing blackbirds are so common here during the nesting season that there is even a sign erected along a local bike path cautioning its users to be aware of sudden attacks from them.
Maybe the City could enlist this bird to harass the trogodyte who’s been damaging and destroying trees in the park.
There are three baby birds in that nest. Third one is hiding underneath the other two, facing left.
Hey bird bully, if you weren’t so busy bombarding bystanders, then this woman with the camera wouldn’t have gotten so close to your nest. What a bird brain.
This was happening to me down at the very end of Seal Rock a year or two ago, so much that I stopped walking there for a time! I would have to put my hood up to walk by those trees – it’s actually pretty scary when they do this.
Damn I hated that bird, nothing sends a chill down your spine like its little claws striking your scalp, luckily he’s been gone for well over a month.
They’re practicing up for next year’s Outsized Lands. Go Meanie!