A selrve delivery low-flying drone in Canberra, Australia, was forced to temporarily shut down after its devices kept getting attacked by ravens guarding their nests, The Canberra Times reported.
Wing, operated by Google's overarching company Alphabet, has been delivering everything from coffee, medicine, and office supplies to Canberra residents since 2019.
However, it announced recently that it would be pausing its services due to several reported incidents of ravens swooping down on the flying machines. This comes at a time where demand for drone deliveries is surging due to Canberra's ongoing coronavirus lockdown.
The latest attack was captured on video and posted online by Ben Roberts, a local resident who orders coffee every morning with the service.
He told The Canberra Times: "It's a matter of time before they bring one down. They think it's Terminator or something."
Magpies as well as other birds like hawks and wedge-tailed eagles have also been known to attack drones.
In a statement to customers in the local area, Wing said: "We've identified some birds in the area demonstrating territorial behaviors and swooping at moving objects," according to ABC News Australia.
"While this is common during nesting season, we are committed to being strong stewards of the environment, and would like to have ornithological experts investigate this further to ensure we continue to have minimal impact on birdlife in our service locations."
A spokesperson for the company also said that contact with birds is very rare out of the many thousands of drone deliveries.
"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," the spokesperson said, according to The Canberra Times.
"Service will be temporarily paused for a small number of our customers in Harrison during this time," a spokeswoman told the The Canberra Times.
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