Posted on 01/04/2016 7:09:44 AM PST by bert
We lost two baby pigeons whose parents had nested on our balcony. Came home and found that the crows had just plucked the heads off. The crows also steal eggs out of nests; I think we lose a lot more songbirds that way, than to cats.
One crow is a very interesting bird; two or more together are thugs. One of the saddest things I ever heard was a bunch of crows condemning and intimidating a crow that had apparently done something wrong, or was an outsider. The one crow cried almost like a human baby during this onslaught, and I didn’t want to stick around to see what ultimately happened.
-JT
I had to look that one up. I’ve never heard of a sharp skinned hawk.
Even huffy cardinals lives matter!
The collective noun for a bunch of crows is “a murder”. Wouldn’t have liked to see that...
I think that was the point. The raptor doesn’t know, of course, but a less than alert or agile, or aging bird is more of a prey.
Always interesting to look out at my feeders and bushes and see birds motionless. Means a hawk is close by. Somehow the word gets passed around that the coast is clear, and they start moving and feeding again. I notice birds fear some hawks more than others. A Cooper’s hawk gets lots of respect!
Cycle of life.
A juvie sharp-shinned from last summer seems to have stayed around and is currently keeping the customers at my backyard smorgasbord on high alert.
Had lots of cats around that preyed upon EVERY living thing and also kept my dogs busy, but that neighbor moved a couple of summers ago and took her cats with her, so now it's just the birds of prey night and day picking off the slow and the unaware.
Life is better at the top of the food chain.
happens all the time at my house, but usually only pigeons are left for the hawk to steal.
My doggie gets up on her hind legs and picks little birds off the feeder.
I had a cat who knew the sound of a bird bouncing off a window. He’d magically appear out of nowhere for a snack.
Same one was deadly to squirrels. He would just wait until they were a bit far from a tree and just run them down. He was fast!
Awesome, bad-ass dog! Check out that tail. Straight up in the air! Definitely NOT a puppy to be messin’ with.
A barn owl took one of my raccoon kids the other night, right out of the back yard! Poor baby was screaming somethin’ awful as that owl flew away.
Did you ever see a Cooper’s fly through a woods? It is amazing ... they used to attack my feeder from the woods. I saw the results of it often, but only actually saw it once. One cannot imagine how they have such speed and don’t ever impact even a leaf. My feeder was about 40 feet from the fence line of the woods. The birds could never see it coming, I barely did, just happened to be looking in the right spot. But with no sideways motion, straight at the target with the woods as a background, the birds never knew what hit them. I wonder what speed they can fly through a think woods, I bet this one was doing 30 mph.
It is the cycle of life, cats included.
We saw a cat in our yard kill a beautiful cardinal...which is no mean feat, because those are some vigilant birds.
I have seen hawks around my yard, too. The birds disappear...at least the smart ones do. Our neighbors have a large bush, and one day, as my wife and I were leaving, I heard the bush was filled with small, loud, chirping birds. As I was looking at the bush, a hawk flew into the bush and it exploded, with birds flying out in every single direction. The hawk didn’t get one, but I had to admire its gumption.
A bunch of crows are called a murder of crows for a reason. Gangstyle living ...
The Mockingbirds in Texas do the same thing... in the air and on the ground.
Wow. You experienced a snapshot of nature few get to experience. Not the pretty side either (although it must have been for the kestrel).
Thanks for the report bert, we also enjoy the activity at our bird feeders.
This is more the case for predictors that hunt heard animals. The less capable are just easier to catch. Raptors as a rule pick individuals. We have prairie falcons around us. From what I’ve seen they pretty much take what they want. I was in the yard one day and saw puff of feathers floating to the ground. One of them had hit a dove in air and was flying g off with it. It was as much of a contest as a P 51 Mustang vs. a Piper Cub.
A co-worker and I were driving through the parking lot at work one day, when I saw something between cars that made me pause. When he stopped, I walked over and saw a red-tail hawk between the cars, standing on top of a crow, with both of its talons sunk into the breast.
The hawk looked at me coldly, and had its wings draped downwards in a “guarding” posture, and stared at me.
The crow was screaming. It sounded awful. Not like a crow at all, and when its body quivered in fear and pain, it modulated the scream and made it sound even worse.
I admit to liking crows, but...that is their world. Sometimes they raid the nest and some little creature is their meal.
And sometimes, a larger creature gets them, and they become a meal.
The cycle of life.
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