Canada Post’s no-crow zone

Canuck, a famed Vancouver crow known for riding the SkyTrain and tampering with crime scenes, has now caused a tiff with Canada Post after attacking a mail carrier.

In response, Canada Post has suspended delivery to three addresses near Canuck’s usual East Vancouver hangout, saying carriers will return only “when it’s safe.”

“Canuck encountered the mail carrier one day and proceeded to bite him a few times, causing broken skin and bleeding … this lasted for a couple of days until Canada Post stopped mail delivery to my home and to two other homes,” reads a post by Shawn Bergman, who maintains the popular Facebook page Canuck and I.

The attack occurred in late April, and Bergman estimates the mail stoppage has affected 12 people.

“With the neighbours getting upset, there have been both subtle and not so subtle threats against Canuck’s safety,” he wrote, although he did not provide specifics.

Canuck has only recently recovered from a man hitting him with a pole at a children’s soccer tournament in March. Knocked out cold, the crow had to spend a period of convalescence at Vancouver’s Night Owl Bird Hospital.

While Canuck is wild and spends nights with fellow crows at an unknown roost, during the day he can often be found around the home of Bergman, who has called the bird “my best friend.”

Identifiable by a red band on his left leg, Canuck’s antics are well-known to the people of East Vancouver, where he’s been documented riding the SkyTrain, surfing on moving cars or simply making off with keys, pens and other shiny objects.

Canuck rose to worldwide notoriety 13 months ago when he snatched a knife from a crime scene. While attending a car fire, Vancouver Police shot and injured a man who confronted them with a knife. As investigators secured the scene, Canuck swept in and carried off the knife — dropping it only after police gave chase.

The crow was already known to police, having once stolen a button from a police cruiser computer.

While many locals have adopted Canuck as a neighbourhood mascot, he can be a bit of a jerk to the uninitiated. In 2015, passing cyclist Steven Huynh suddenly found Canuck perched on his back, pecking at his neck. In a four-minute video captured by Huynh, the cyclist can be seen dropping his backpack and backing away as the bird repeatedly swoops at his face.

And just on Sunday, patrons at an East Vancouver McDonald’s captured video of Canuck strutting across tables, helping himself to meals.

Bergman suspects that the recent mail carrier attack was prompted by Canuck building a nest nearby. Although the crow has no eggs to protect, he became equally aggressive toward anyone approaching the nest.

Canuck is certainly not the only Vancouver crow swooping in on passing pedestrians. Crow attacks are so common in Vancouver that there is now a special online map used to help pedestrians avoid aggressive crows. Developed by Langara College’s Jim O’Leary and Rick Davidson, the map, dubbed CrowTrax allows users to catalogue individual crow attacks and identify hot spots.

Experts in bird behaviour usually advise steering clear of crow attacks simply by avoiding aggressive crows, although in a pinch a swooping crow can usually be foiled with a good umbrella.

Canuck the Crow