Aggressive Arctic tern in flight. Photograph: Andrew Parkinson/Corbis
Like a scene from Hitchcock's famous film The Birds, our feathered friends are on the warpath once again. Residents of Chicago have been terrorised by red-winged blackbirds, which are dive-bombing cyclists and pedestrians who dare venture into their breeding territory. And even though the blackbirds are pretty puny - roughly 20 cm long and tipping the scales at less than 70 grammes, or about the size of a starling - locals are reportedly terrified of their daily attacks.
Not that this is anything new. Since the first caveman went out to get something good to eat for supper, birds have been attacking human beings who enter their nesting areas. It's understandable really - if your eggs or chicks were threatened by something bigger than you, you'd probably do the same.
But nowadays, because millions of us live cheek-by-jowl alongside birds, and have taken over their territories with our own homes, attacks appear to be on the increase - in Britain as well as the US.
A quick survey of bird attacks reveals that the West Country is a particularly hazardous place, especially if you are ornithophobic (frightened of attacks from birds). In 2004, a Devon postman was regularly attacked by a cock pheasant on his rounds - possibly because his red van incited the bird. And just last year, a Cornish cyclist was dive-bombed by a buzzard every time he ventured across the border into North Devon.
Holidaymakers are also victims: visitors to Cornish beaches often have to comfort sobbing children whose ice cream cone, pasty or fish and chips has been snatched by a marauding herring gull. Even the Eden project has been attacked - probably because the male gulls see their reflection in the panels and think they have seen a rival male.
Meanwhile, generations of birders (not to mention legions of wildlife TV presenters from Bill Oddie and Kate Humble to Simon King and Alan Titchmarsh) have run the gauntlet of attacks from breeding bonxies - the local Shetland name for the great skua. With a wingspan of well over a metre, and weighing up to one-and-a-half kilograms, you certainly know you are being attacked by this chap.
But these bulky birds are amateurs compared with Arctic terns, whose pecks to the head can - and do - draw blood. If this masochistic experience appeals to you, head to the Farne Islands off Northumberland (though you'll have to hurry as the birds head south on migration to Antarctica in a few weeks).
And if you really want to take your life into your hands, pay a visit to the Australian bush and approach a southern cassowary - a flightless bird similar to an emu. This two-metre tall, 60 kg bush-dweller has a sharp claw on its leg, which it uses to disembowel attackers - including one unfortunate human being who died of his injuries. Then again, he was trying to kill the cassowary at the time.
So, are there any other aggressive birds that you have noted on our shores?
