Originally posted by jquill And they are not afraid to protect their territory or their young.
Geese are famously pugnacious birds. Before I entered my teens my family used to vacation for a couple weeks in Maine on the farm where my dad was raised for a while after he was orphaned. The adjacent farm, quite close, had a pen with several big geese, I remember walking over there and immediately the geese would come waddling aggressively to the fence making nasty, threatening geesy noises. I beat a path back to the other property. Other birds can be fearlessly protective when they have a nest and young. I was confronted by a humming bird when a college student in California. Tiny thing did it's territorial dance literally inches from my face. For several years a pair of mockingbirds nested somewhere in our front yard. I never spotted the nest, but we had a big fluffy Persian cat who liked to roll on the warm blacktop driveway, but when the birds had young, they'd attack her. They fly in from behind as the cat strolled out and peck her atop the head. She's try to catch them, turning around abruptly, but they'd change their flight pattern just as quick. As soon as the cat thought she's driven them off and started walking along, back they'd zoom and bang her on the back of the head yet again, causing her to flatten on the driveway, or leap after them as they sailed far out of reach. Watching the affair from inside.was a scream.