diff --git a/avatars/avatars.py b/avatars/avatars.py
index 220cae9cb..eaf58bc52 100644
--- a/avatars/avatars.py
+++ b/avatars/avatars.py
@@ -1,5 +1,10 @@
 import hashlib
 import math
+import logging
+
+from requests.exceptions import RequestException
+
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 class Avatar(object):
   def __init__(self, app=None):
@@ -32,10 +37,13 @@ class BaseAvatar(object):
     if url is not None:
       # Try to load the gravatar. If we get a non-404 response, then we use it in place of
       # the CSS avatar.
-      response = self.http_client.get(url)
-      if response.status_code == 200:
-        return """<img src="%s" width="%s" height="%s" alt="%s"
-                       style="vertical-align: middle;">""" % (url, size, size, kind)
+      try:
+        response = self.http_client.get(url, timeout=5)
+        if response.status_code == 200:
+          return """<img src="%s" width="%s" height="%s" alt="%s"
+                         style="vertical-align: middle;">""" % (url, size, size, kind)
+      except RequestException:
+        logger.exception('Could not retrieve avatar for user %s', name)
 
     radius = '50%' if kind == 'team' else '0%'
     letter = '&Omega;' if kind == 'team' and data['name'] == 'owners' else data['name'].upper()[0]