Moment snow boarder is attacked by irate capercaillie

The bolshy bird is seen on the footage attacking filmmaker Igor Popeliukh, 27 at Sheregesh in Kemervo region.

Igor and his friends were skiing off-piste when they noticed the bird at the edge of the forest. 

‘I went a bit nuts from seeing the bird so close, and decided to spray it with snow in friendly sort of way’, Igor said in explaining why we went so close to the bird showering it with snow. 

What happened next was described as ‘the battle of the year’ in Russian social media as the snowboarder had to retreat as fast as he could from the furious bird.

‘The capercaillie was offended with such impudence, and made one, two, three attempted punches to my torso,’ Igor posted.

VIDEO COURTESY IGOR POPELIUKH

The Novosibirsk snowboarder is seen on video having to use his snow board to fend off the capercaillie.

‘I did not expect the attack,’ he said. ‘I got scared when such a massive bird went at me, I literally went into a stupor. 

‘It was hard to run away, too, as I was scared to turn my back on it and neither did I want to hit the bird’. 

The filmmaker escaped, but soon afterwards came a cropper on a stone hidden in the snow. 

He blamed instant ‘karma’ after upsetting the capercaillie.