Residents in an Etobicoke neighborhood are facing a feathered menace as red-winged blackbirds become increasingly aggressive during their breeding season. The birds are dive-bombing pedestrians,delivery drivers,and anyone who ventures too close to their nests.

Danielle Lowzon was walking in Etobicoke on Friday when a blackbird swooped by her ear. “I just felt a whoosh of air pass my head and it freaked me out, ” she says.

Steve Blanchard says he is constantly threatened. “I try to get out daily. So it’s a daily event,” he says.

Talika Sheehan,a resident of the Kipling and Dundas area,notes that while blackbirds have always been present,”It is. It’s crazy. They’re so aggressive this year.” A nest is located near her front door, making it tough to simply avoid the birds.

“I mean, I can’t use my front door anymore,” she says. “I have to sneak out the side. My kids and I are all on it every day when we’re on our way to school. They know to watch the birds.”

Sheehan has even posted to Facebook videos from her home security camera showing anyone who tries to approach the house being attacked. In various videos, a bird can be seen diving towards their heads, constantly fluttering around them until they walk away from the front door.

Why are the blackbirds so Aggressive?

“Red-winged blackbirds are very territorial,” Andrea Chreston of the Toronto Region and Conservation Authority says. According to Chreston, mid-June is prime breeding season, a time when blackbirds have set up their territory and their nests are full of babies. The male of the species actively defends this area to protect his babies “so that his genetic material can be passed on and survive into the future,” she says.

“Explain to me how I’m supposed to avoid the area. I can’t. It’s literally at my front door. I can’t avoid walking past them all day,”

Chreston says the birds’ goal is simply to drive any threats out of the area.

Ron Glatt, who lives next door to a nest, has witnessed numerous attacks. “It seems like, especially people who are distracted, like if you’re on your phone or not paying attention, that’s when they really try to get you,” he says.

Some residents, like Steve Blanchard, are taking the attacks in stride. He says, “living in the city.It makes you feel a little closer to nature, I think.”

Limited Options for Residents

According to Chreston, breeding season will last for a most weeks at most, but Sheehan has a nest right in her front yard. “there’s also one in the bush in our neighbor’s yard over there as well, and possibly one in (a nearby) tree,” she says.

Typically, the advice for those who don’t want to be attacked is to avoid the area-something Sheehan cannot simply do.

“Explain to me how I’m supposed to avoid the area. I can’t. It’s literally at my front door. I can’t avoid walking past them all day,” Sheehan says.