Chicago is under siege. By blackbirds. "Nesting season is in full swing for the red-winged blackbird, making the males extremely aggressive. Walk or bike too close to one's nest and expect to hear its high, menacing squawk overhead. Then comes the peck-peck-peck on your head, victims say, or claws rustling your hair."
I can sympathize. My children found a battered baby bird sixteen days ago. They put it in a box and fed it cat food (funny aside: my 11-year-old got ruffled when his sister started to buy chicken cat food: "Chicken is a bird. You can't feed him birds!"). We didn't think the thing would live, but it did. It can now fly and apparently find some food on its own, but it still comes to us for feedings and it has no fear of humans. If he gets at all hungry and we don't feed him, he attacks us: he bit my daughter's arm, has flown onto almost all of us, and has pecked our feet. He even follows my sons to neighboring houses when they play baseball and torments all the kids. A friend told me yesterday (after his wife came to our house and was attacked) that starlings are mean birds. The feedings stop after today. If he continues to attack, I'll call in the bb gun.
