Swooping grackles attack Houston residents

[im10ashus]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/18/birds.attack.ap/index.html

Swooping grackles attack Houston residents
'This is a very Hitchcock kind of story'
Wednesday, May 18, 2005 Posted: 9:43 AM EDT (1343 GMT)

HOUSTON, Texas (AP) -- 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."

[Taxloss]

1. What the hell are grackles?

I've never heard of them. They sound like something out of Lord of the Rings.

[yellowcanine]

6. "grackle" - any of several rather large American blackbirds (Icteridae)

[Taxloss]

11. Thank you.

Great word.

[babylonsister]

7. They look similar to crows but are smaller, dumber, and

apparently meaner! :) But they're just protecting their nest(s); no swooping in my backyard.

[Taxloss]

14. Thanks - birds do protect their nests viciously.

As do we all.

[im10ashus]

8. Big Black Bird!

http://www.nevadaaudubon.org/BirdSites/GTGrackle.htm

[Taxloss]

15. Yikes!

I think it's a great name.

On edit: "purplish iridescence"; sounds great.

[enlightenment]

12. Largish black birds (sort of brown black)

with incredibly long, pointy beaks. Lots of people don't like them. They're pretty annoying, travel in packs (I swear. Like Hell's Angels with feathers), and make an unpleasant noise.
The males do an interesting mating dance, though. Walk around with their heads tipped back, beak skyward and neck puffed up, making a loud honking-like noise. Since they can't see each other, or anything else, it makes for an amusing show. They walk into each other, trees, etc. The females just shake their heads, sadly, and ignore them.

[yellowcanine]

2. "The Birds!" I hated that movie. Couldn't look a blackbird in the eye

for days afterward.

[Mandate My Ass]

5. If you think the movie was bad

then you don't want to read the short story by Daphne du Maurier....:scared:

[alcibiades_mystery]

3. LOL

I'm sorry, but that imagery is hilarious.

Wonder if Ken Lay ever got jacked up by a grackle down in Houston?

[Spazito]

4. It must be that damned Newsweek's fault!

I bet the grackles read that issue of Newsweek and are protesting in support of the White House's 'outrage'!

[im10ashus]

16. LMAO!

That must be it.

:rofl:

[mopaul]

9. the common grackle

[yella_dawg]

18. Most likely it was "Boat-Tailed" Grackles

that mob South Texas this time of year. It is not uncommon to see them in the hundreds, particularly after dark. My bank had a large tree growing behind the building. I dropped by the ATM one night, and the tree was literally bowed under the weight of grackles sleeping in it's branches.

I'm kind of fond of them. Their mating ritual is hilarious. Never heard of them attacking people before. But then, Houston's a rough place. I hope the gators don't take up the grackle's ways.

[leveymg]

10. G*d's back. And, she's pissed. n/t

[NV Whino]

13. I wonder if the lawyer is going to sue?

[Bridget Burke]

17. Crebain out of Dunland....

Reporting back to James Baker--Houston's far too liberal....