How Seriously Should 'Bird Attacks' Be Taken? A Solid Basic List of Birds with Danger Potential
Posted by Animal Attacks and Dangers on Sunday, July 9, 2017
In today's civilized world, a bird 'attacking' a human, often may refer to a choice of words to add excitement to or exaggerate a very minor and naturally expected event.
In the days of antiquity, maybe thousands of years ago, birds might have been large enough in remote regions of the world that a potential attack could be taken anywhere near as seriously as an attack from a ground predatory animal known for dangers to man, such as a tiger or rhino; most would probably come to the consensus that fairy tales involving a large bird having the upper hand is an era that has been over for a long time.
Nevertheless, a bird is an animal, and there are certain animal safety precautions that are common sense. In areas that are not as urbanized, a parent bird is bound to do what it can to try to protect their young and perceived threats to habitat. Some scientists purport that a big difference between animal and humans, is when there is a flight or fight response choice, humans may be in the situation to think through what that different options are in response to a situation, whereas animals, in this case birds, might be able to do some thinking, but not as advanced as humans, and response to a situation involving perceived danger may come down to a simple duality of either flight, or fight or combination of these.
As a last resort or anomaly, every once in a while a bird might momentarily try to put up some kind of defense or do something which it thinks might do some kind of injury.
A small bite, clawing, or along those lines depending on the bird could be in the list.
Aside form North America and Europe, there are other regions of the world where bird defense still takes place, and the natives there have to apply the means to live without harm. Videos have been uploaded with glorifying themes of eagle attacks. A few years ago, 2010 especially, eagles did attack humans in areas of Alaska, performing slight injurious miscellany. More recently in the U.K., spring of 2017, a seagull attacked a teenage male in the coastal area.
Drawing from an article originally written in Spanish, basically translated, '10 Birds Dangers to Humans', here are some cases besides eagle attacks and seagulls, with a few added updates from ETIS for their names, features and locations:
Other birds to note, condors, lammergeier, large owls especially horned owl, great northern loon and swans, magpie, and emu.
In brief, be wary of large birds that can fly fast, some of which have wingspans several feet longer than the average human like the eagle and lammergeier, or if they cannot fly can run fast, have strong legs, and can scratch and kick you. Beaks, talons, and claws, are features to be careful of.
Obviously, if you are near these animals at zoos, then exercise the right precautions
A few safety measures:
In the days of antiquity, maybe thousands of years ago, birds might have been large enough in remote regions of the world that a potential attack could be taken anywhere near as seriously as an attack from a ground predatory animal known for dangers to man, such as a tiger or rhino; most would probably come to the consensus that fairy tales involving a large bird having the upper hand is an era that has been over for a long time.
Nevertheless, a bird is an animal, and there are certain animal safety precautions that are common sense. In areas that are not as urbanized, a parent bird is bound to do what it can to try to protect their young and perceived threats to habitat. Some scientists purport that a big difference between animal and humans, is when there is a flight or fight response choice, humans may be in the situation to think through what that different options are in response to a situation, whereas animals, in this case birds, might be able to do some thinking, but not as advanced as humans, and response to a situation involving perceived danger may come down to a simple duality of either flight, or fight or combination of these.
As a last resort or anomaly, every once in a while a bird might momentarily try to put up some kind of defense or do something which it thinks might do some kind of injury.
A small bite, clawing, or along those lines depending on the bird could be in the list.
Aside form North America and Europe, there are other regions of the world where bird defense still takes place, and the natives there have to apply the means to live without harm. Videos have been uploaded with glorifying themes of eagle attacks. A few years ago, 2010 especially, eagles did attack humans in areas of Alaska, performing slight injurious miscellany. More recently in the U.K., spring of 2017, a seagull attacked a teenage male in the coastal area.
Drawing from an article originally written in Spanish, basically translated, '10 Birds Dangers to Humans', here are some cases besides eagle attacks and seagulls, with a few added updates from ETIS for their names, features and locations:
- Hawks
- Ifrita kowaldi, also knowdn as, blue-capped ifrit, New Guinea,has poisonous projections
- Colluricincla megarhyncha, also known as little shrikethrust, tropical forest areas of Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, has a toxin [like poison], or toxic levels
- Pitohui of Papua New Guinea area, have toxin [almost like poison effect] between skin and feathers
- Vultures
- Ostrich
- Cassowary in New Guinea area, have a dagger-like feature in their claws
Other birds to note, condors, lammergeier, large owls especially horned owl, great northern loon and swans, magpie, and emu.
In brief, be wary of large birds that can fly fast, some of which have wingspans several feet longer than the average human like the eagle and lammergeier, or if they cannot fly can run fast, have strong legs, and can scratch and kick you. Beaks, talons, and claws, are features to be careful of.
Obviously, if you are near these animals at zoos, then exercise the right precautions
A few safety measures:
- When areas where there are bird warnings, heed them
- Do not be neglectful of small children in areas where birds are present
- When traveling to a remote area, such as a jungle in Africa on a vacation, know what to expect about the animals there
- Do not be completely negligent of the realm of possibility of animal behavior; if you are in area where hungry large birds are present, and you have food with you, do not taunt and tease the animals, and do not go about as though oblivious to the possibility of some kind of action the birds might do
- When around smaller and commonplace birds, be aware of the possibility of infectious diseases, even in places like the city where popular activities such as feeding them in parks takes place
