This likely won’t show up in the weekly Police Blotter, so we thought it was worth a mention…
Reader Ashley told us she was recently attacked by a crow (or a raven) while walking along 14th Avenue between Clement and Geary.
“This morning I was walking my dog and noticed a large noisy crow sitting on the roof of a parked car. I walked past it and went on my way. A few seconds later I was hit very hard on the top of the head by the dive bombing crow!!”
Ashley guesses that the bird may have been protecting a nest.
If you’ve lived in the city for the last decade, you’ve surely noticed an increase in the crow and raven population. In 1991, Audubon Christmas onhealthy klonopin clonazepam Bird Counts tallied 17 crows and 54 ravens in San Francisco; in the 2011 count it leaped to 599 ravens and 566 crows.
Why the influx of these shiny, loud black feathered friends?
“Kevin McGowan of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology notes that they don’t get shot in cities; they benefit from both federal protected status and local firearms ordinances… Also, he says, cities tend to be warmer than the countryside, and have large trees for night roosting. Urban crows are less likely to encounter their mortal enemy, the great horned owl, and city lights let crows spot owls before the owls spot them,” wrote the Chronicle in 2012.
Whether raven or crow, watch yourself if you walk along that block of 14th Avenue.
Sarah B.
Ravens are typically larger and they make a distinct trilling sound in their “Caw.” They are both bitches.
This was happening to me on Seal Rock (street) for a while.
Be careful out there!
I’ve been dive bombed by those small, slightly bigger than a sparrow birds and that’s no fun, so a crow/raven, yikes!
Hmmm, since they never attack from the front i wonder if putting on a pair of sunglasses *backwards* would deter them since they’d think they were eyes…
They come by in flocks and terrorize the neighborhood cats. I’ve seen twenty at a time.
The Native Americans said “The Coyote will pick the bones of the last man, and the Raven will pick the bones of the last coyote.”! We got both in the Richmond, watch out!
The SFPD did not get any reports about the raven, but if we had, I would have put the following in the weekly Police Blotter:
ANGRY BIRDS
05-08-2015 Once Upon a Midnight Dreary
Clement & 14th Ave
SFPD responded to a report of a raven dive bombing passersby. When contacted by Poe-lice officers, the Raven agreed not to attack people ever again. Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”
The raven increase is coincident with the change from user provided metal trash cans to plastic bins on wheels with hinged lids from what is now called Recology as well as increased littering and unlawful camping contributing to litter. I’ve seen many ravens feasting on overfilled black bins before the contents are collected (which used to happen before 7 AM). They will ignore you if you ignore them. Conversely, the seagull population has declined in the neighborhood at roughly the same ratio over the same period.
We have a pair on our block. They have been here for years. Once they moved in the (“flying rats”) pigeons moved out. We had to net out back stairs to keep the flying rat’s out. Now we don’t have to. I will take the crows any day!
Aw, Captain Silverman! We seem to cycle through captains every 1-2 yrs. I dearly hope you stick around.
A group of three ravens had been dive bombing me on my roof deck recently. I researched how to keep them away on the Internet. Shiny, silvery holographic ribbon keeps them away…and, I am here to tell you that it really works! It isn’t pretty tied around objects on my roof deck but, those ravens (and they are big) are staying away from my deck. Where do these birds nest, though? I am seeing one hang on the “other” side of my roof.
GG Park seems to be the roosting location for many ravens. I don’t see too many crows, if any, in the Outerlands.
Hard to believe that a scavenger raven would dive bomb a human…perhaps it was a crow who aren’t as social & smart as a raven which can be up to 3 times the size of a crow.
I saw a raven like this one at 2nd and Geary about 6:30am today. S/he was walking on top of a car near all the garbage cans pulled to the curb, and then gave me a mean stare as I walked by…
Ravens sure can have an ominous look. I always feel a little uneasy when I have to walk under one perched on the telephone wire outside my house. Just have to say I love the Raven Police Blotter!
There is going to be a free lecture about ravens in San Francisco at Green Apple on the Park (Green Apple’s Sunset location). on May 27 at 7:30pm. There is more info at http://sfnhs.com/
The police blotter is seriously one of the highlights of my week. So glad I signed up.
The trees in front of my house must make great nesting material. Every year swarms of ravens attack them and break off the small twigs, leaving a mess on the sidewalk. It’s like a hurricane went through. I don’t know where they build the nests but they love using my trees as a raven Home Depot.