When red-winged blackbirds attack

June 19, 2023 6:18 AM

I was attacked by a red-winged blackbird. I have questions.

I am not blaming the bird and realize it was just defending its nest, so please, no lectures. I also Googled, so I'm looking for info I wasn't able to find. I do know that mid-June is the beginning of their nesting season.

Here's what happened.
I was taking a walk, and a red-winged blackbird flew straight toward me, then veered off. I didn't realize that was a warning - I just thought it was cool looking. I stopped to take a picture of it. As I was walking away, it banged into the back of my head. I didn't understand what had happened, so I looked around, then continued walking, at which point it banged into the back of my head again. I left without further incident. (That sounds so calm. I was majorly freaked out.)

I happen to be able to see this bird out my back window. It's in an area that a lot of people walk through, so I've been watching to see if it attacks anyone else. I've seen lots of people walking by it without being bothered. I'm guessing my mistake was stopping to take a picture after it tried to warn me away.

Here are my questions:
1. Will it recognize me? I know crows can recognize people, but I don't know about blackbirds. Avoiding that area makes my walks considerably less pleasant because it's on a very narrow path, so I need a completely different route, but I've been afraid to go back there. I don't know if I'm on its shit list. I know nesting season ends around mid-July, but I'd rather not wait that long.

2. When they attack, do they tend to hit people with beaks or just body slam them? I've watched videos of them attacking people, and I can't figure it out. I tried to see if I was bleeding afterwards, and I wasn't. If it goes after me again, I'd be concerned about it breaking the skin because I'm immunocompromised.

3. This article says to wear a hat. Is that a joke, or is there a reason to do so? Someone on NextDoor said that they stopped attacking him because he wore a hat and the birds thought it was a raccoon. I can't tell if that's a joke either or if there's some kind of raccoon hat I should get.

Sorry if these are dumb questions. I'm trying to convince myself that since this has never happened to me before, it must be a very rare occurrence, but it really freaked me out.

posted by FencingGal to Science & Nature (15 answers total)

It might recognize you but I'm guessing not, they aren't crows or magpies. But, your overall look may still trigger it.

Hats definitively help, both to prevent attack and to protect if attacked. For fun you may peruse some of the techniques they use in Australia to deal with their very serious magpie attacks (eg https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-21/10-foolproof-ways-to-defend-yourself-from-magpies/9070934 ).

I think a blackbird would generally go in with feet first but you can't rule out a beak attack.

I think you'll be fine to keep using that walk, just go through quickly and do use a hat if it helps your confidence. Trying to time it with a group will almost ensure you are unmolested.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:34 AM on June 19, 2023

I don't know about their threat assessment criteria or ability to recognize people, but I do know that we had blackbirds nesting in the trees in front of my office building that would divebomb people all the time and posted a warning on our company intranet about it, so it's pretty common.
posted by LionIndex at 6:34 AM on June 19, 2023

Red-winged blackbirds get VERY aggressive during nesting season. It wasn't personal, you were just an Intruder In Its Territory.

That link includes advice for how to defend yourself - wearing a hat is one suggestion, temporarily changing your route or going through that one spot quickly are other ideas. If you can figure out where the exact nesting area is, put as much space as possible between you and the next itself.

(I also got dive-bombed by a red-winged blackbird last year - that was a near miss, but I was still surprised!)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:43 AM on June 19, 2023 [2 favorites]

Although I don't know the mysteries of RWB behavior, I wanted to let you know that I too have been attacked by the formidable critter while walking.
1. I was body slammed a couple of times -- no beak was used. I hurried off and made some loud noises, and it stopped swooping. So that makes two of us who were body slammed and not pecked, and while I have heard of this same thing with other people in this particular park and elsewhere, I really have never heard of someone with Hitchcock-y blood streaming down their face from a RWB beak. I think they mainly swoop and bang you.
2. I would be very very surprised if it could recognize a specific human. It just is going to attack someone who goes too close into its territory and happens to freak it out.
3. I would walk very quickly and maybe even cover my head with my hands while passing through the exact area where it dive-bombed me.
4. I don't think wearing a hat is a deterrent but it might make you feel better (I was scared of hair tangling). If you're really worried you could wear a bike helmet the first time you venture out - just to reassure yourself you're not going to be attacked again.
posted by ojocaliente at 6:51 AM on June 19, 2023

Best answer: These are not dumb questions. As a semi-professional bird botherer, I have a few anecdotes from my run-ins with redwing blackbirds that may help address them, but they are not empirical evidences.

1. I don't think they recognize specific people, per se, but rather motion types. Earlier this week I was attacked for the first time this year. This was as I walked down a path I take almost daily, but this time, i'd stopped for important business (pokemon). This path is highly trafficked by foot and bicycle, and I've not been, nor seen anyone else get attacked in the days prior or since.* My guess is that if your path isn't highly trafficked, they will take any incursion as a threat, whereas my attacker is on a lower defcon level because of greater activity generally.

2. When attacked, i've only been hit by their feet. And from the following research that I conducted this week, I'll suggest why you shouldn't worry about breaking the skin or eye injury:
So my bird assailant this week started off our interaction by silently swooping at the back of my head, no warning shot. After first contact, he and his mate perched above me, calling loudly. (she was mostly hyping him up, yelling "yeah, fuck 'er up get 'er and that sort of shit). As I concluded my pokemon business, i turned to go, and quickly heard the wings beating in behind me for another swoop. I turned back and the blackbird aborted his dive, and instead hovered angrily above my head for a few seconds. I then did few experimental turns and walking backwards tests, which leads me to hypothesize, that at least for this pair, they won't attack when you are looking at them. When they can see your face they just scream at you. But when they see you're turned away, they go quiet and swoop in for the attack, just like the ghosts in Mario Brothers.

Tentative Conclusions:
•Wearing a hat will help protect the back of your head from their little talons. They are unlikely to attack your face.
•Stopping to talk shit back to them provokes them further. Walking quickly seems to reduce your perceived threat level.
•They do not compile an enemies list.

*I have not been attacked in that spot since I did my very intentional fact-finding antagonism with that pair, so even I, a semi-professional bird botherer, am not attacked on sight, so long as I keep it moving.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 6:59 AM on June 19, 2023 [27 favorites]

Best answer: Birds have sturdy breastbones but fragile necks- I'm not aware of any birds that use their beaks as impact weapons while in flight. The blackbird might extend his claws and scrabble at you a bit, or ding you with his tummy as he pulls out of a dive, but he's not going to ram you with his beak at full flying speed. (I guess maybe he might peck a little if he first landed on your head? But sheesh, it's a blackbird, they're not that strong.)

Birds pursuing and harassing predators tend to do so from behind, for obvious reasons. So your eyes and face are probably safe unless you lean over a nest or something.

It might help to consider the blackbird's incentives in this interaction. Unless it's cornered and fighting for its life, no tiny animal would evolve to attack predators many times its size, in the sense of aiming to cause serious injury. Wasps and bees do that because they are more like expendable cells of a larger superorganism, but your nesting blackbird is a solo individual who is just trying to live its one wild and precious life like everybody else. The scenario where you are genuinely hurt is way worse for the blackbird than for you, because then you might turn and use your teeth and claws to kill it. So the bird doesn't want to start a fight; it just wants to use mild discomfort to make it easier for you to move on than to pause and notice the yummy chicks in that nest. Help it out by taking the hint, and I bet you'll be fine.
posted by Bardolph at 7:43 AM on June 19, 2023 [10 favorites]

Would you feel more comfortable carrying an umbrella/parasol on that stretch?
posted by kate4914 at 8:00 AM on June 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

I have a couple of nests that I can't avoid walking past. Usually they seem to swoop down near my head once and flap their wings as a sort of warning. At that point I put my arm up over my head (sort of wrapped around, forearm and elbow forming a sort of helmet) and walk away fast. I confess it does make me nervous. There is something kind of creepy about the sensation of having a bird flap its wings right behind your head.

This is a big topic every summer in the suburbs of Chicago. I once met a mail carrier who wore a hat with a shiny balloon attached to it with an image of an owl which they earnestly explained to me was especially effective at deterring the birds. Googling to see what else is suggested brings few results other than keep walking and maybe cover your head.
posted by BibiRose at 8:00 AM on June 19, 2023 [3 favorites]

My two best guesses about why a hat is recommended are: a) it might make you look different enough from the usual humans it encounters that it hesitates to attack you, since you seem like an unfamiliar type of creature or (most likely) b) a hat provides all the protection you need to remove any worry that it could scratch your head with beak or claws.

Remember that blackbirds are very, very small and light, smaller than they look and probably much lighter than you're imagining. At most, they weigh only about 3 ounces! Even if the bird does hit you with its claws or beak, it's not going to damage you through the fabric of a hat and it would be pretty unlikely to do any damage even if you were naked.
posted by Redstart at 8:03 AM on June 19, 2023

Former Chicago resident, Montrose bird sanctuary regular, and red-winged blackbird victim here. The times I was attacked, it was always a swoop and, if they made contact, it was always the back of my head versus their tiny little feetsies. No injuries or broken skin, ever.

A hat certainly won't hurt, but I have no idea if it would help at preventing attacks. They have a very distinctive call, and it really ramps up prior to attack, so my eventual approach was to alter my route if I suddenly heard a lot of calls. They are just trying to protect their babies, after all.
posted by ailouros08 at 8:11 AM on June 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

They're pretty persistent defenders. I got hit last week: silent attack from behind, squawking clawfest behind right ear. I'd had ones challenge me loudly, and swoop down with much wing noise and hissing, but never a hit. Now the little ones are mostly out the nest, the parents seem less vicious. It might just be my location, though.

→ I'm not aware of any birds that use their beaks as impact weapons while in flight.

Terns. If you wander into a tern nesting area, you'll get lots of warning from above. If you don't move away really fast, they'll drop on you like a dart. Without a hat, they will draw blood. Had one of our party on Fair Isle hit by a tern, and it was a messy scalp wound. (Fair Isle also has skuas - who will try to knock you over - and fulmars, who will puke on you. Anyone who's ever complained about Canada Geese being aggressive would bloody hate Fair Isle.)
posted by scruss at 9:24 AM on June 19, 2023 [9 favorites]

This only seems like a very rare occurrence because, for whatever reason, your normal daily routes didn't go through a blackbird's nesting territory until now. It's actually really common, though. You didn't do anything wrong to attract its attention; they're just really ornery. Yes, you could have moved out of its territory faster and maybe avoided the follow-up divebombing, but neither you or the bird were harmed so I would just chalk this up to the initial "wtf" reaction it's natural to have.

The other reason it might seem rare is that although these are really, really ornery birds, they're small and they just want to scare you away. You don't hear about attacks because they're of little consequence. I suppose it's theoretically possible that they can scratch you; if this is something that would be especially bad for you because you're immunocompromised, you can wear a hat if you have to walk through that area again.

When I was in college, there was a nest between my bus stop and my apartment. It would dive bomb students daily. I couldn't avoid walking past it. I felt bad for it more than anything. What a stressful place for it to set up a nest!
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 12:51 PM on June 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks everyone. These were all helpful, and I really could have favorite every one, but that seemed like a lot of green.
Will go out with a hat tomorrow.
posted by FencingGal at 5:29 PM on June 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

Since they seem to always attack the back of your head, I've found that keeping your eyes facing them stops them from actually striking you. So, I'll try to walk away as quick as I can, while still keeping my eyes on them (maybe walking backwards for a bit, etc.). They'll still keep swooping down at you when you're close to their nest, but will back off before hitting you if you're facing them.
posted by JonathanB at 7:34 PM on June 19, 2023

Response by poster: Update: Put on a hat and took a walk this morning. I saw him fly by, but he didn't bother me. I walked very quickly in that area and will continue to do so for at least the next month.

Again, everyone was super helpful! Thank you so much!
posted by FencingGal at 6:28 AM on June 20, 2023 [5 favorites]