Somehow I doubt that this is the work of sparrows, as the news story suggests, but I am unsure what species might be to blame. Anyone care to wager a guess?
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
Brewer’s blackbirds, maybe?
@Barbara: That might make sense. With my east coast blinders on I didn’t even think of them.
Those are most likely Brewer’s Blackbirds at that location, given they’re saying the birds were black. Northern Mockingbirds are also known to get a bit — enthusiastic — in protecting their nests around here.
I got pecked on the back of the head as I was leaving the center three weeks ago. The bird flew away before I could get a really good look, but I thought from the squawking it made that it might be a European starling. in the shade they look black, though you can see the speckled underside when they’re flying above you.
@Hangaku Gozen: I live in Europe and have never heard of starlings attacking / pecking people. That would be quite unusual, I guess?
@Jochen- When I lived in the Midwest, a starling built a nest in a tree adjacent to our office’s rear entrance. It began attacking everyone who used that door—deliverymen, smokers slipping out for a cigarette break, our poor custodial staff. There was a discussion over whether we should remove the nest before the bird drew blood: happily, it was decided to leave it alone until the babies left the nest in the summer, while directing people to use our front entrance instead.
Maybe US starlings are more aggressive? 🙂
I love the sign: “Incidents of small black birds pecking of public.” Translated from the …?
I’m pretty sure it’s Brewer’s blackbirds. They’re quite common here. One particularly aggressive one in SF’s Financial District got pretty notorious a few years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odCo0F51MXw