Canuck the crow, known for terrorizing residents of Vancouver, has pecked his way to Tyler McLeod's heart.

The East Vancouver mail carrier always has peanuts ready at hand and a spot in his van for Canuck to hang out while he delivers the mail.

"This is all on his terms," McLeod, 40, told As It Happens guest host Susan Bonner. "He sort of just started accepting me."

But relations haven't always been so good.

The crow is infamous in Vancouver for pecking residents, stealing a knife from a crime scene and breaking into both McDonald's and the SkyTrain.

Canuck made headlines internationally after he was swooped into a crime scene and made off with a knife in 2016. (Facebook/thecrowandI)

Tensions boiled over last year when Canuck began assaulting mail carriers while delivering the post.

Worried for their workers' safety, Canada Post suspended delivery to three addresses for a month.

"If I saw him, I would avoid going to the house or the houses where he was known to be," McLeod said.

A bad first encounter

McLeod said he and the crow didn't always get along.

"When I first met Canuck, it was very alarming," McLeod said.

The pair first became acquainted when Canuck swooped in for an attack.

"I was going to deliver the mail, and then out of nowhere, this bird started flapping up around my face," he said.

McLeod doesn't blame the bird.

"I think he was just defending his area," he said.

The situation reached a fever pitch when McLeod became afraid to do his job and residents started complaining about not getting their mail.

"It got to a point where it was so bad, I just had to say something to one of my supervisors, I was like, 'I'm having these encounters with a bird and I don't know what to do.'"

Foe becomes friend

Then, one day in Feburary, everything changed.

"Out of nowhere, he flew down and landed on my arm," McLeod said.

He said he was blown away.

Bystanders started laughing at the spectacle, he said.

"I saw the humour in what was happening and I was like: 'You know what? I'm going to not avoid this place. I'm going to maybe bring my GoPro camera with me and maybe start filming these encounters,'" he said.

Now, it's a common sight to see McLeod and Canuck spending time together in East Vancouver, filming videos for Instagram.

At a colleague's suggestion, McLeod carries peanuts on his route for his feathered friend.

"Ever since then, it just turned around," he said.

"It became something funny and fun and I was no longer anxious about going into that section of the neighbourhood."

Written and produced by Jason Vermes with files from Sheena Goodyear and Imogen Birchard.