Now playing: 'Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds in Houston'

[TexasStooge]

Hostile Grackles Attack People in Houston

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."

[CaptinCrunch]

TS, do you remember when downtown Dallas had that problem in front of Union Station? it took 3 months of loud noise and nets in trees to get the grackles to leave, I guess they went down to Houston to live.

[Skywatch_NC]

I remember one time when I lived in Hamilton, OH...at the Butler County Courthouse there was problem with pigeons for a while and so an amplifier/ speaker system set up near the building that had taped noise of like shot gun blasts!

Would hope that nearby residents and the police dept. didn't think they were real shootings!

Eric

[TexasStooge]

TS, do you remember when downtown Dallas had that problem in front of Union Station? it took 3 months of loud noise and nets in trees to get the grackles to leave, I guess they went down to Houston to live.

I also heard that there were a few bats in the mix from one of the news sources.

[beenthru6]

This isn't unusual at all. Every spring our animal control agency would get calls for :attacking birds". After the babies left the nest, everything went back to normal.