Crow attack in East Vancouver caught on video terrifies cyclist

Steven Huynh was riding on his way to work Friday when he met a man petting a crow on the side walk. When he stopped his bike to get a better look, things got serious.

The crow took offfrom the ground and started attacking him.

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"It attacked my knuckle," said Huynh from his home. "When it was on my back, that's was when I was terrified because I couldn't look back."

Active on YouTube,the 19-year-old grabbed his camera and started rolling.

"How often do you see something like that, right?"

Huynhsays he had no idea why the bird chose to attack him. He had no food on him and did not antagonize the bird. However, it seemed the bird was fixated on an orange stripe on his backpack.

Intelligent Beings

Derek Matthews from the Vancouver Avian Research says crows are different from other birds because theycan recognize and remember faces particularly ifsomeone has fed or harassed them.

He believes this crow may have seen similarities between Huynhor his backpack and a past encounter.

"They will get to know people as individuals," said Matthews. "This is almost certainly what's happened in this situation."

As for the man who was seemed to have a relationship with the crow, Matthews says that'sentirelypossibility. If a crow is fed over a continuous period of time, it mayfollow an individual.

His advice to anyone who comes across an unruly crow is to just keep moving along and remember, "crows are not evil ... they're just trying live their lives, feed their families, feed themselves,just like we are."