Anyone ever get hit by a bird?
 

I was minding my own business, riding my ride...when from the side 2 small birds, fighting with each other, fly in front of me, bounce off my chest, and go on their way...that was a first for me! Anyone had anything interesting bounce off of you on your ride?

Not a bird, but a bat once.

Hood Smack & Mystery Bat.

Plenty of bugs, including some very large ones, crossing the country. Large grasshoppers hurt the most.

A bird once got caught in my front spokes. It got flipped under my front wheel. Its neck exploded when I ran over it. Sad.

Came within a yard hitting a deer while descending during my first cross-PA.

A few years ago, a friend of mine got hit in the head by a goose. She crashed, suffered a concussion and shoulder injury. The force of the impact ruptured the goose's abdomen. It fell to the ground and literally spilled its guts in the roadway.

Chased by a badger once when I went for a night ride when I used to work nights. I think it tried to bite the tyre but released instantly when it's mouth started to rise. Hard to tell as I was cycling hard at the time trying to get away from it and didn't look back. I only really knew it was happening because in the dead of night I could hear it approach and hear snuffly noises. In fairness it could have been something else but I'd encountered badgers before and the sounds seemed similar. I ought to do that again sometime as the atmosphere of riding at night was quite unique and memorable perhaps not in the same area as the badger though and perhaps with company next time.

Two birds, and a rabbit one time riding single track. Poor thing jumped straight up and bounced off my lights into the brush!

Never been hit by a bird, but had some angry birds chase me for passing too close to their telephone wires.

No bird hits yet but many close and minor encounters with squirrels which are a general problem for many bikers as can be seen below:

https://www.google.com/search?q=squi...w=1500&bih=779

Buddy of mine had a squirrel try to cross the path with very bad timing. Went through the wheel, and two half squirrels came out the other side :-/

Same. It was Spring so I'm sure it had made a nest (I could hear the babies chirping). It was in my neighbor's tree and every time I'm walk by it would kamikaze dive my head. Even when I crossed the street it still would come after me. Thing is, I'd watch as other walked by and it didn't attack them. Even when I crossed the street it still came after me.

For a little sparrow it was quite aggressive and had me running away like a scared little girl. I ended up walking in the other direction and around the block for that entire season.

If birds can become that aggressive when they have offspring I can only imagine what a bear would be like. I hope I never have to find out.

On election day 2016 I was buzzed by a bald eagle. It was an omen, but I'm still not sure of what

ive been attacked 2 years in a row by crows at one specific place. the feathery bastards drew blood both times.

also have a buddy who has hit so many pigeons on his bike that he is traumatized and semi freaks out when riding g near pigeons, does not want to kill any more.

I was taken down hard once by a duck. I was skimming along a bike path. The bird must have been on the ground. It spooked and flew into my rear wheel. I went down hard. To get the bike rolling again, I had to bang the front wheel in the road to straighten it out so it would pass through the forks. I had to unhook the front brake so I had to ride slow going home. And it took me a while to get the damn feathers out of my rear campy derailleur, :).

What? The likelihood of that happening would be infinitesimal.That is unless he's intentionally riding through flocks and startling pigeons? I guess this is a joke?

not a joke we have either suicidally depressed pigeons or really slow/ lazy ones. i found out about this when i saw him making wayyy too much of a fuzz about getting pigeons out of the way and semi freaking out. that's when i heard this fact, and i started to crack up. i do believe it though hell ex ended up accidentally kicking a pigeon while walking.

yes, swallows under bridges a couple of times. Also some crazy mean geese a time or two

Yes. I got clocked by a hawk diving for a squirrel at the side of the trail. Epic endo. You know that Danny MacAskil video where he does the backflip off the bank, spins around and keeps on riding? It was nothing like that. I coughed up dirt for two days after that faceplant.

Decapitated a pigeon once when it flew into my front wheel.

I was riding with a friend who thought it would be funny to chase geese. Two of them took off and flew into me. One got caught under my arms and the other beat me with its wings trying to get enough speed to fly away. Both had incredibly strong, boney wings. My "friend" thought it was hilarious.

GEESE ARE VERY EVIL! : The wife and I took our first born to a local park in our two wheeled cart 30 years ago. We were sitting down having a picnic and had placed our sleeping daughter in the cart, while I put moves on the wife. I heard a scream. A goose had its beak over one of my daughters big toes and I grabbed the goose by the neck and head. At the same time I was getting the goose of of my daughter. A female deputy was screaming at me not to hurt the goose. I turned toward her and released the goose. I did not know a goose could put up such a fight. I had only got the goose away from my daughter. The deputy had taken the full brunt of its wrath. I had to pull the goose off of the deputy. She looked pretty roughed up. Here eyes were glazed over and her hand was over the hilt of her gun. I think she was contemplating shooting me and the goose. At this point my little girl was pointing at the deputy and laughing. The deputy appeared to get over it.

I got hit by a fairly large butterfly. Left an orange smudge.

Very possibly the same birds. Some birds can remember a person who disturbed them and later pick him out of a crowd, and crows are especially smart.

Never had an issue with birds. Did have a seagull poop as he flew over me and hit the stem at the handlebars - perfectly. I don't think it was an accident but I also don't think it was malicious.

Seagulls are birds that like to have fun. I watched a gull dive vertically in a Pacific storm in an updraft off the end of our building. Every break I would go out and look. He kept diving non-stop for 4+ hours. Like a 200 mile mountain descent. He'd found gold.

Took a friend out to see Seal Rocks at the Golden Gate, again in a Pacific storm. 4 gulls were flying slowly and low upwind over the ocean waves, basically staying put. Every once in a while, one would fly up into the full wind, get shot 50' into the air and blown back. Dive back to the ocean 1/2 mile downwind and do the long, slow, hard flight back to his friends. A few minutes later, another would go for the ride.

So I think that gull that hit my bike was just doing target practice. What I don't know was whether that was a bullseye or he was aiming for my helmet.

Ben

A bat and have dodged rabbits a lot. I did run over a rattlesnake once on my mountain bike. He threw a hissy fit, I was more rattled than he was.

Got hit in the head once about 15 years ago by a wild duck that had taken off about 80 metres away and just kept flying straight at me. It kept flying after it hit me; fortunately, I was wearing a helmet.

Magpies are the worst birds in my experience. I used to ride through a cross road in the middle of a small town near where I lived at the time, at a certain time of the year, there would be at least one magpie patrolling to attack any passing cyclists from behind.

In three hits, I had lacerations on the back of my neck and a couple of nicks in my ear lobe. I've encountered magpies in other places while riding, but this one had become an expert in nip attacks.

Some advice to me was to wear cable ties on either side of the back of the helmet to make it look like another animal looking up at the sky. It worked a bit, but still didn't stop from them squawking loudly and flying downward in attack-mode.

Ironic that when away from that annual period, they can be quite friendly passers-by on the ground, and don't attack from the air.

I was just riding along and THUMP a bat with (obviously) defective sonar hit my sternum.