Advocacy & Safety - when airborne animals attack

It's not enough that we have to be on point when we ride so much...looking for peds, cars, other riders.
But I got hit by a bird today! Has anything so ridiculous happened to anyone else?

I was hauling down a Brooklyn sidestreet when suddenly out of the corner of my eye this gray flapping blur came in from the left...instinctively I swerved and hunkered down on my frame. But it was too late! This pigeon took a sharp dive and with a feathery smack nailed the front wheel, knocking it into a 10-11 o' clock position momentarily.

By the time I corrected the steering and looked back, all I could see was some feathers floating thru the air. Couldn't stop, would've been late for work. The wheel is OK. Hope the bird was OK, but sticking one's head in a moving wheel isn't very healthy. Will hold a memorial for him tomorrow morning if I find his wreckage near the site where we collided.

Be warned...look out for them flyin critters. Especially now that it's getting warmer out...bugs aplenty.
Be sure to ride with mouth closed.

I had the same thing happen in Seattle years ago. Though when the bird hit my front wheel it got flung out at a female cyclist that I had just passed. She flipped out as if there was some way I could have avoided the obviously suicidal bird.

Great Blue Heron
6 foot wingspan
5 and a half pounds

Hit me in the chest, bounced onto the frame, one wing thwapping the front wheel, the other over my shoulder.
A very Angry Bird.

both of us flew away, i think i was more scared.

I had a friend years ago who was knocked off his bike by a flying dog.

Every day he would ride past a dog on the other side of the street who would strain at his chain and bark. One day the chain snapped, the dog ran out to cross the street and got hit by a car. Fido flew threw the air and knocked my friend off his bike. No damage to cyclist but the dog did not survive the incident.

Blue Heron?! :eek:

I got buzzed by a pigeon once while commuting.

Ages ago, while I was riding a motorcycle, something flew out from under a bridge. I had an instant to react by ducking behind the windscreen. Later, my riding buddy said, "I thought you were dead. That hawk came about 2 inches from your helmet."

It seems that even pigeons are subject to the stressful effects of city life.
I guess I will have to grind up some Zoloft and mix it in the seed next time I go to the park to feed the birds.

Enjoy

You feed those things? Maybe you should mix birth control in with the seed. They are committing terrorist acts against cyclists! And watch out for their crazy friends the squirrels!

I was attacked by a goose the other day. Then again, it wasn't airborne at the time so I just swerved around it.

I was attacked by a goose the other day. Then again, it wasn't airborne at the time so I just swerved around it.

I have been hit in the head by a pigeon while riding through the city.

I also had a flock of geese fly into the side of my car in Cincinnati. They just took off from the median into the lane. I was doing about 60 mph and couldn't avoid them.

I dunno guys, I think I'd rather have a collision with a WHOLE bird than be mortified by having one dump on me again.
I was at the beach today and an Osprey was flying along minding his own biz when he was attacked by a flock of wild parrots, seems the Ospreys here have found the parrots are easy picking and taste better than fish and easier to catch

I had a mid-flight collision with a bat on a night ride a couple of years ago. It grabbed onto my shoulder and hung on for about 100 yards before it regained its senses and took off. That was creepy.

Nearly got nailed by a pelican when riding around the pier a few weeks ago...those guys are freaking HUGE!

There's an old folks trailer home at one of the places I ride ... with ANGRY SWANS ... what do those old people do to those poor birds to make them angry enough to chase innocents on bikes?

Here in south california we had a huge swarm of painted lady butterflies a fewweks ago. Millions of them hatched at once. it was like locust. On a 10 mile ride on a path near a creek with lots of flowers, I felt at least 50 hit, include a bunch off my sun glasses and 2 in my mouth.

Bats. Lots of bats everynight when I ride home from work. They live in the mango and banana trees near my house.

I got a bug in my eye once while riding on an off-road trail. I was going fast, the bug was also going fast, we managed to collide in my eye ball! I had to close both eyes, and braked not knowing were i was goin, and managed to drift to a stop. The dead bug managed to go through the cyle of moving to the side of my eye then sliding into the corner where i managed to pick it out.

Also I am a keen target for magpies, butterfly's and those god dam bees. Well thats what you get when you ride off road...deadly fauna ;). I also keep a look out for those evil wombats :rolleyes: .

ahaha deadly wombats, sometimes when i go offroad, i worry about snakes. You never know.....

What about Magpies? We've got them during the day, and the bats at night. I've seen one brown snake in the bush, and a Wallaby (not a footy player) one morning too. Oh, don't spider webs across a track just suck too?

Not quite hit, but there were only centiemetres in it. A duck took off 100 metres away and flew straight at me, and kept flying, and kept flying, quacking loudly all the way. I had to duck to miss it (I know, corny, but true... I swear). :D It was on a commute home and by the water. I don't know what startled it, but it was like panic stations for it, and as it approached, for me too.

One of my helmets shows attack damage by a Victorian magpie. What else could you expect -- a paranoid Mexican? And a scrawny one at that. But it is a weird sensation to feel a shove on the back of the head and neck from nowhere! I am glad the helmet was on my head -- the puncture "wounds" on the polystyrene are quite deep.

Then there are wasps! And ouch... on the lip and tasting the venom as well as trying to cope with a quickly swelling lip... something interesting at 50km/h on a fast descent.

On a touring ride several years ago, I spied a hawk above just as it flew off to settle on the branch of a tree. My friend behind me later related how it had circled around me for a while, sizing me up as prey. Scary!

What about Magpies? We've got them during the day, and the bats at night.

I do a fair bit of night riding in the country. On one particular night, I noticed this "thing" drop with a thump on to the verge to my right. This is in the middle of nowhere. Complete darkness. My ride partner was way up ahead.

The "thing" buzzed and spun on the ground, and glowed blue. I didn't stop to find out what it was -- I was on a mission.

But I wondered about it for a long time, and it was only after riding the road sometime afterwards that I saw the power lines.

Then I remembered when I lived in Far North Queensland and seeing a fruit bat suspended between the two parallel power lines above a street. Its wingspan was enough to touch both wires and.... zap!!! It remained suspended there for ages, like a crucification (apologies to Christians).

I *think* I worked out later that what dropped to the ground glowing blue was a bat that had been electrocuted.

And no, I wasn't hallucinating -- that comes after 50 hours of riding!!!

What a difference the metric system can make. I got hit by a bee on my cheek at 50MPH. Ok, it was only about 48MPH (Yes, Rowan, I used to own road bikes. Nice ones too) but it was on a long downhill section that's pretty sketchy due to a narrow bike lane, poor road surface, and speeding soccer moms. First instinct is to put your hand up to the wound, which is a really bad idea. And yes, I'm glad I'm not a postie during the Magpie season.

What about Magpies? We've got them during the day, and the bats at night. I've seen one brown snake in the bush, and a Wallaby (not a footy player) one morning too. Oh, don't spider webs across a track just suck too?
Magpies are only annoying to me when i'm road riding. They fly off the powerlines are swoop at you. You can tell when they are coming because they make that sqarking noise. I've never seen any bats at night time before, well i did once but no harm. Brown snakes or Whip snakes are probably the only types of snakes you'll get around my offroad area, but i haven't seen one yet which is good. And spiders well they piss you off when they make a web and you ride straight into it.

First instinct is to put your hand up to the wound, which is a really bad idea. And yes, I'm glad I'm not a postie during the Magpie season.

Ain't that the truth... I just about rode off on to the gravel verge and it took a *whole lot* of self control to maintain... control.

My best mate is a postie. It's not the magpies (posties have hard helmets), but the idiot householders that get to him... the stories he has told are mind boggling. He's the guy riding behind who told me about the hawk circling.

It's not enough that we have to be on point when we ride so much...looking for peds, cars, other riders.
But I got hit by a bird today! Has anything so ridiculous happened to anyone else?

I was hauling down a Brooklyn sidestreet when suddenly out of the corner of my eye this gray flapping blur came in from the left...instinctively I swerved and hunkered down on my frame. But it was too late! This pigeon took a sharp dive and with a feathery smack nailed the front wheel, knocking it into a 10-11 o' clock position momentarily.

By the time I corrected the steering and looked back, all I could see was some feathers floating thru the air. Couldn't stop, would've been late for work. The wheel is OK. Hope the bird was OK, but sticking one's head in a moving wheel isn't very healthy. Will hold a memorial for him tomorrow morning if I find his wreckage near the site where we collided.

Be warned...look out for them flyin critters. Especially now that it's getting warmer out...bugs aplenty.
Be sure to ride with mouth closed.I have been chased by a dog but never atacked by a bird .That looks like a B 17 over the ploesti oil fields.

Swans are just really nasty creatures. You should see what they do to shetland ponies that get too close.

I have been chased by a dog but never atacked by a bird .That looks like a B 17 over the ploesti oil fields.


B-24. The location is correct.
This picture haunts me and is a firm reminder that even in the face of ridiculous odds, we go and will get through.

...on a lighter note, a pitbull chased me yesterday too, but it had a toy in its mouth and seemingly wanted to play. Or so it would have had me think. :D

I had a mid-flight collision with a bat on a night ride a couple of years ago. It grabbed onto my shoulder and hung on for about 100 yards before it regained its senses and took off. That was creepy.
I would have freaked. And crashed!

I would have freaked. And crashed!
It was all I could do to keep from crashing.

Last year I had to deal with a very territorial Mocking Bird due to its nest being nearby. It would attack from the rear anyone that walked or rode past the tree. :)

Haven't been hit yet, but have been swooped upon by blackbirds, and owl, and one time a heron trying to get airborne nearly clipped me.

There was a great post over in MTB about a guy who got a bird stuck in his full-face helmet on a downhill!

Stoopid birdz...

A canadian goose attacked me once at full speed from the side. I managed to elbow his neck as his open bill was reaching my adams apple. The impact knocked us both down.

Canada Geese are a big problem in parks and along River Trails. I have had to swerve to miss them many times. At certain times of the year, when thy have young in their care, they will freuently rush you on your bike, hissing and flapping their wings. They are big muscular birds and I would not want to hit one. Also, their green turds are disgusting.

Here in Michigan, the Red-Wing Blackbirds get pretty territorial. They're not terribly BIG, (perhaps 8 inches tip to tail) but they'll chase a bike for over half a mile.

One male last summer taught his progeny his tricks, so that by the end of the season I had 3 or 4 of the little beggars dive bombing my helmet in addition to their daddy. No actual contact has been made, but the shadows and wing flapping noises told me they were getting very close. I imagine it's only a matter of time before I collide with a bird brain. (pun intended)

If anyone has ideas of how to avoid them in addition to their cool/scary stories I'd like to hear them!

Ideas...

paint a big eye on the top of your helmet? Not terribly fashionable, but it might give a bird pause?

Fairings?

I wondered why mainland riders in a randonnee had zipties on the backs of their helmets. Two per helmet. Sticking up in the air, My Favourite Martian style, but six inches or so. I thought they had something to do with attaching helmet lights, but couldn't figure it out.

I later found out the zipties were a defence against magpies and other attacking birds. The scheme doesn't stop the birds from flying close by, but I suppose it upsets their ability to dive bomb and make contact.

In the SW of England last year, there was a buzzard whch regularly attacked cyclists and made the national news.

Sadly, being a birdbrain, it tried to do the same to a car.

Its condition was later said to be satisfactory

I was attacked by a pair of Osprey two or three times while going over a bridge. They must have had a nest nearby. A week later they were gone, I assume the young left the nest. I could have touched them there were so close.

One clear theme--bicycling is a great way to see wildlife up close. Birds and animals don't hear you coming, and they seem to be less fearful of humans on a machine.

Except sheep.

Animals: Once I was riding home from high school and this crazy squirrel ran out to the road and danced in and out of my wheels, I pulled my feet up and was scared to death he'd get minced by my spokes.

Later, I was riding a moped and a little bird ran into me, hitting my chest. I went back and looked for the little guy and never found him, I'm sure it was a white-eyed vireo or some other really cool little bird.

Later still, I was riding to work at the animal hospital, and a bird pooped on my head! I got to work, and washed my hair with some of the dog shampoo.

Later still, I was riding my little trials motorcycle away from my house and a beetle went in my nose! I gave him a little time to crawl out, and when he didn't, blew out and problem solved.

Later still, I was riding a motorcycle with a group, and on the way to one of the twisty roads, we stopped at a stand and bought some fresh orange juice some kids had made, then on the way back rode by the stand again. I felt little things hitting me, and thought the kids were throwing orange seeds at us, but they turned out to be bees! And one or two of the group got all stung, good thing I was all leathered up.

Dog shampoo. :)

Yeah dog shampoo. Smelled ok and well, got that bird poop right outta my hair. An a co-worker just had to ask me why I was washing my hair, since my first action on arriving there in the morning was not normally washing my hair in the sink to start the day. So I told her, and I don't know if she believed me, maybe it's better if she didn't and just thought I'd been too lazy to wash my hair at home.

While mtn biking I had a ruffed grouse come after me. My partner and I startled her and about 8 young when we came around a corner in the woods. The explosion of movement scared the hell out of me, I hit my brakes and couldn't get out of my clips fast enough to keep from falling over. So I was laying on the ground trying to disconnect from my bike, the mother grouse was charging and hissing at me (but never made contact) and my partner was laughing hysterically. That bird had no fear, it stood there making noises until I gathered myself and watched us ride off. A half mile down the trail a deer nearly ran into me. That was a memorable ride! :D

Had a huge rat run right in front of me while heading East on Euclid last night.
Normally would not have bothered me so much but it was huge (I thought is was a cat or a large rabbit).
Be sure to pack some bear spray if you are riding around the University Hospital area at night.

Enjoy

That looks like a B 17 over the ploesti oil fields.

That would be a B-24 Liborator. Location could be correct.

Sometimes on the gravel trails I have to slam on my brakes because a chipmunk will pop out of their hole right in front of you .. stoopid chipmunks make their den right in the damn trail!

This is the most amusing thread I have ever read.