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Source: https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/q/19260
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

<p>A buzzard seen nearby has been continuously attacking people for over a year now. As far as I know this isn't normal behaviour, especially not outside breeding season. Please correct me if I'm wrong. While not 100% sure this is the same animal it surely looks like it because it is always in the same place (let's say plus/minus 100m), the style of attacks is always the same (from behind, usually just flying over a person's head but sometimes effectively scratching them, sometimes severely), and simply because according to biologists I talked to such attacks are fairly rare and it would be exceptional if a whole bunch of them behaved like that.</p>

<p>Another story: years ago we had a male common blackbird in the garden which without any obvious reason started to produce it's alarm sound from sunrise to sunset, almost non-stop, without any evidence whatsoever of any danger (no predators to be seen, no humans, not a single of the many other birds of all kinds of species sounding alarmed). This lasted for about 2 weeks then it stopped for unknown reasons - one possibility being the bird died. In any case, this again isn't exactly standard behaviour. I've been around blackbirds my entire life but never have witnessed something like that.</p>

<p>So just like people can develop mental problems, both cases always led me to think those birds had mental problems. Would that be a feasible explanation? Or is that not regarded as a proper diagnostic for bird whereas it is for humans? Are there other known cases, possibly studies? Could the cause of such behaviour be genetic, a virus, bactaria, parasite perhaps? Or just some disfunction with hard to track cause (again, like for some humans)?</p>