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The flowers are in bloom, the sun is beginning to make regular appearances from behind the clouds and the crows are dive bombing passersby.

It鈥檚 spring, which marks the breeding season for many animals across B.C., leading to some pretty wacky behaviour as they move to protect their newborns.

And while breeding season for crows isn鈥檛 quite as nightmarish as Alfred Hitchcock鈥檚 film The Birds, zoologist Wayne Goodey said it can quickly get intense.

OMG I had two crows attack my head at the same time once in the West End, it was brutal! People walking on the sidewalk just stoped and stared, didn't even help me. LOL! 馃槀

鈥� Krystal Yee (@krystalatwork)

鈥淚 have spoken to some people who say they don鈥檛 go out this time of year without wearing a hat,鈥� said Goodey, a professor at the University of British Columbia.

鈥淲hich is probably enough to make sure you鈥檙e not going to get scratched, but that doesn鈥檛 mean you aren鈥檛 going to get chased.鈥�

Crow attacks have become a seasonal conversation in Vancouver. In January, adult birds find their way back to the nest they made the previous year, each time modifying it, according to Goodey.

And while that happens in the winter months, the aggressive defensiveness doesn鈥檛 happen until breeding season begins in March to June.

And once that starts, Goodey said, crows commonly defend an area around their nest up to one hectare in size.

Vancouver seems to be where the most number of crow-related chaos has ensued, even leading to a Lower Mainland professor, Jim O鈥橪eary, creating an app so pedestrians can track and post the location of an attack, allowing others to know which areas to avoid.

鈥淚n Vancouver, especially in some neighbourhoods, population density is high; there鈥檚 lots of people walking around鈥� these are all things that tend to increase the stress level for the birds, and they would be much more prone to defending,鈥� he said.

Simply put: the crows will defend any potential predators from its nest, whether that be cats, squirrels, dogs or humans.

When 馃槺 ???

鈥� Jorge Parra (@UnderK9)

Between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, O鈥橪eary said 68 people added their reports of crow confrontations to the interactive online map he and a colleague created in 2016.

He said June figures are higher than usual, possibly because March and April were cool and wet, delaying nesting and the crows鈥� territorial feints, flutters and outright airborne assaults that come with it.

Goodey said pedestrians should be aware of their vicinity to nests if they want to stay out of peck鈥檚 way.

鈥淵ou just need to look up in the trees and see the nests,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he crows are not targeting you, or hate you鈥� all they want to do is give you a reason to move on. If you keep moving once they chase you, you have no problem at all.鈥�

But crows aren鈥檛 the only animals that get become more aggressive in the spring.

While deer breed during the fall, raccoons and skunks in rural areas of the province are also known to get defensive this time of year 鈥� especially in areas where food and other abundance is low, Goodey said.

鈥淲hen they don鈥檛 have babies, they tend to avoid contact with people, but if they have babies nearby they will be quite aggressive towards people.鈥�

Other animals to watch for are Canada geese and ducks, he said.

鈥淓very year at this time there are lots of amusing YouTube videos that go up of people getting chased by geese.鈥�

With a file from The Canadian Press

ashley.wadhwani@bpdigital.ca
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