Drone delivery of coffees, medicine and food comes to a halt as aggressive RAVENS attack the sky-high tech over an Australian suburb
- Drone service Wing has paused services in areas of Canberra, Australia
- Ravens have been attacking drones delivering essential goods to customers
- Bird experts have been called in to investigate the worrying behavior
Aggressive ravens have grounded a drone delivery service in Australia after bizarre footage of freak bird attacks emerged.
Wing, run in collaboration with Google, operates in Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory delivering coffee, food, medicine and hardware supplies.
The drones drop off each package to the door but lately customers eagerly awaiting their morning lattes in the northern suburb of Harrison have instead been greeted by vicious ravens swooping and pecking the aircraft.
Wing has now temporarily halted flights in parts of the suburb as local bird experts investigate the behaviour of the territorial animals.
Ravens have been terrorising drones delivering food and other supplies to locked down residents in Canberra this week
Ben Roberts was waiting for his daily coffee this week when he suddenly noticed the his drone was under attack.
He managed to film the raven hanging onto the back of the aircraft and furiously pecking it with its beak.
The drone struggled to fly under the weight of the large bird but fortunately for Mr Roberts was able to deliver his breakfast before taking flight again.
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'They are certainly very territorial at the moment,' he told the ABC.
'From their point of view, they're very intelligent birds, what must a drone look like to them? It would be like a flying saucer landing in our front yard to us.'
Ornithologist Neil Hermes, who studies birds, advised Wing to temporarily suspend flights and said nesting season was likely exacerbating their aggression.
Wing, which operates the drones, has been forced to temporarily pause flights in parts of the Canberra suburb of Harrison due to vicious ravens attacking the aircraft (pictured is one Wing drone delivering a package to a family)
'The bird appears to be perfectly unharmed by the fact it's attacked this drone, and given that Wing are not currently flying in the area, the bird probably feels it has been successful in driving it away,' he said.
Wing said its operations were not impacted elsewhere and that they were unaware of any birds being injured by their aircrafts.
'As is common during nesting season, certain bird species demonstrate territorial behaviour and swoop at moving objects,' a spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.
'In the unlikely event that a bird makes direct contact with our drone, we have multiple levels of redundancy built into our operations to ensure we can continue to fly safely.
'Consistent with those procedures, the drone completes its delivery safely, including delivery of food and drink that remains untouched in our delivery package, and then returns to our facility.'
The spokesperson said there had also been reports of ravens attacking garbage trucks, cars and even pedestrians.
Wing was first launched in the ACT in 2019 and has become widely popular during the recent Covid-19 lockdown with 10,000 deliveries carried out
'We have identified some birds demonstrating territorial behaviour in a small part of our delivery area in the suburb of Harrison, and we've asked local ornithological experts to investigate this further to ensure we continue to have minimal impact on birdlife in our service locations,' they said.
Wing was first launched in the ACT in 2019 and has become widely popular during the recent Covid-19 lockdown with 10,000 deliveries carried out.
The service is available in the Canberra suburbs of Crace, Palmerston, Franklin, Harrison and Mitchell with food, medicine, office supplies and hardware tools all on offer.
