Hawk Dive-Bombs People Hindering Mail Deliveries in Texas

A territorial hawk is dive-bombing people in a Texas neighborhood, making mail deliveries very challenging to impossible

Dive-Bombing Hawk in Texas

In a neighborhood in the south of Austin, a brazen hawk has been creating some trouble.

The United States Postal Service said it must cease operations to neighbors within the bird's range until it calms down after the hawk swoop assaulted many households.

USPS claimed that it has halted making deliveries to a number of Travis Heights residences in order to keep its staff safe from the aggressive bird.

A representative for the USPS stated in a statement that while the Postal Service always aims to offer the best services, the security of their workers and clients comes first. The presence of a hawk has made it unsafe for several residents on Milal and Kenwood streets to get their mail in the Travis Heights neighborhood.

Since hawks are an endangered species under federal law, USPS claimed it sought assistance from Austin Animal Control and Texas Parks & Wildlife Department. According to USPS, residents will have to pick up their mail at the post office as long as the threat exists.

Customers of USPS were sincerely thanked for their patience as we worked to find a satisfactory solution to this issue and apologized for the trouble this may have caused. If there is a risk of harm, the postal service has a policy of refusing to deliver to a residence. For example, if a hornet's nest was close to a mailbox.

Therefore, until it is safe for mail carriers and delivery personnel to resume their route, residents of about 20 residences must pick up their mail at a local post office, as per USPS spokesman Becky Hernandez via Axios Austin.

Blake Hendon, a wildlife researcher, believes the bird is a red-shouldered hawk, according to reports from FOX7.

Common Bird Behavior

According to Nicole Netherton, the Travis Audubon Society executive director, this behavior is actually rather typical. Every time they sense a potential predator around, the parent hawks automatically react in this way. The birds mistakenly believe that people are approaching their young too closely rather than realizing that humans are not trying to eat them.

Netherton said that not only hawks exhibit this territorial behavior; cardinals and mockingbirds are also known to swoop when they perceive that their nest is in danger.

During a bird's mating season, which normally lasts from March to July, people can anticipate witnessing this kind of behavior, according to Netherton.

Netherton said that this also occurs frequently in mammals. Simply said, we pay greater attention to it whenever these animals are armed.

Dive-Bombing All Over Texas

Netherton speculated that the rise in bird assaults might be related to the trees that were felled during the ice storm in February 2023, though she did not have any evidence to back up this theory. Despite being a typical occurrence, bird assaults seem to be more common or remarked about this year. 10.5 million trees, or 30% of the city's canopy, were damaged by the ice storm, possibly driving birds to select less-than-ideal nesting locations closer to residences.

Netherton suggests ignoring any hostile birds until they fly away. She urges people to regard this as a short-term problem with limited health hazards by pointing out that wildlife predates humans and is adapted to exist here. This is a shared space; only humans may use it, KXAN reports.