And now for something completely different.

For the past several days, just half a block from my Bill-Paying Job in San Francisco’s downtown Financial District, a small blackbird has achieved international fame by persecuting pedestrians and entertaining onlookers. Swoops, as the bird has been affectionately named, is simply protecting his newborn chicks. It is a perfect collision–literally–of the natural world, technology, and our human desire to connect and share with each other.

Feathered defender of your nest, meet the Internet.

My roommate and I stopped to watch on our way to the BART station after work today. Sure enough, there was Swoops, vigorously living up to his moniker. People were taking pictures with their cell phones. Some even had small video cameras. We watched for several minutes, along with the small yet ever-changing crowd which now congregates at SGZ (Swoops Ground Zero), then grinned at each other and headed for the subway after a close call when Swoops briefly zoomed over to our (opposite!) side of the street.

I didn’t realize until I got home to check YouTube that our neighborhood dive-bomber had become internationally famous. He even has his own dedicated blog.

In fact, should you find yourself in the Bay Area and wish to stop by Front Street between California and Sacramento to see the show (for however long it lasts–apparently these chicks will soon leave their doting parent with a case of Empty Nest Syndrome), Swoops’s dedicated fans at the Chronicle have even provided some handy suggestions on the proper Attack Bird Viewing Etiquette and Best Practices. (No, I’m not kidding. Click on it–you know you want to.)

Nothing profound here . . . or maybe I’m just too tired to come up with any profundity tonight. I simply wanted to share a perfect little San Francisco oddity which is quite literally happening around the corner from me.

Signing off,

A Swoops Fan

Tags: San Francisco, weirdness

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