Yep (check the species name - it all fits).
Great-Tailed Grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus)
Posted on 05/18/2005 9:01:25 AM PDT by Asphalt
HOUSTON (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."
Don't Mess with Texas (birds)
Those must be the ones I call "Walmart birds"...
My appreciation for grackles grows !
Yep (check the species name - it all fits).
Great-Tailed Grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus)
I'll bet none of these evil Mexican Grackles has a carte verde either.
Got a nest of them in my eaves. Just let my cat out and they are going bananas!
Mockingbirds are a real hoot to watch.
I have grackles, jays, mockingbirds aplenty here in centex.
Have never been attacked by them but get a lot of enjoyment watching them dive bomb neighborhood cats, dogs and squirrels.
I understand that it is a crime to harm a Mockingbird in Texas. Please correct me if I am wrong.
For the past several years we had a flock of grackles pass through in the spring. While they are here they won't let any other birds near the feeders. They are definitely agressive. Other kinds of birds mostly seem willing to share (except for our great horned owl, who emerges from the woods every once in a while to snatch up a mourning dove and carry it back to a stump where it removes the feathers and eats it at its leisure).
"Green cards?! We don't need no steenking green cards!"
Look at 'em, flooding across the border:
And now we see the mindset of the LASD when they unloaded 120 rounds into a neighborhood of homes.
Shoot first, look for innocent bystanders hit by wild gunfire later.
Where I shoot, there is little to no chance of hitting any other homes or bystanders.
Okay.
The birds are in downtown Houston and you suggested using an air rifle to shoot them, didn't you?
That was more of a joke than anything else. We had a hailstorm back on Mar 25 and a second on Apr 1. Those two storms killed grackles and doves by the thousands.
I can see it now. dozens of grackles in formation flying around John Edwards house. "Grackle leader to flock -- prepare to engage laxative..."
How do you say "pushing a stroller" in Latin...to complete the deal?
I have been gone from there for over ten years. This was happening then.
Gloabl warming causes agression in grackles.
They're the state bird of Texas. Tennessee too.
Aha! I always thought they WERE crows. Hmmmm, wonder if these are the same birds that come out every spring and completely cover your lawn.....looking for who know's what?
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