Fight to the death

Zamboni

A couple of us in work just witnessed a fight to the death between two birds.
I have no idea of types of birds but one was brown and the other was smaller and black.
Around 60+ birds gathered around on trees watching but didn't interfere.
It was a fairly one sided competition that resulted in the smaller black one dying.
I have never seen anything like it.

Trojan911

Zamboni wrote: »

A couple of us in work just witnessed a fight to the death between two birds.
I have no idea of types of birds but one was brown and the other was smaller and black.
Around 60+ birds gathered around on trees watching but didn't interfere.
It was a fairly one sided competition that resulted in the smaller black one dying.
I have never seen anything like it.

Nature is weird, cruel & wonderful in one sentence.

Gaspode

Samuri starlings always fight to the death!

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Sounds like a bird of prey taking a meal. Withour size and more description it's hard to know what species. Nature is thus!

Starlings do certainly fight to the death but not always. Robins, among others, have been known to fight to the death also.

boneless

I once saw two kingfishers fight to the demise of one. It's a resource war...

Hammiepeters

I'd lay a bet that it was a sparrowhawk taking a jackdaw.

Kess73

Yeah a sparrowhawk taking a starling/blackbird sounds most likely

Hammiepeters

Kess73 wrote: »

Yeah a sparrowhawk taking a starling/blackbird sounds most likely

Starling and blackbird would be a quick kill for a sparrowhawk. Thats why I'm guessing crow family. Saw a female trying to take a rook one day on the Greystones road. Rook put up a fight and traffic disturbed the battle so he got away. A male is smaller again and would struggle even more against a jackdaw or rook.

Kess73

Hammiepeters wrote: »

Starling and blackbird would be a quick kill for a sparrowhawk. Thats why I'm guessing crow family. Saw a female trying to take a rook one day on the Greystones road. Rook put up a fight and traffic disturbed the battle so he got away. A male is smaller again and would struggle even more against a jackdaw or rook.

Doubt if it was a male sparrowhawk due to how small they are compared to a female and also due to the colour difference between a male and female. I agree a small corvid could fit the bill (no pun intended) of the attacked bird, but have seen male blackbirds put up fights against birds of prey, making for one sided but brief battles. What is unusual is the lack of mobbing by other corvids if it was a corvid that was attacked, although that could have happened before the OP noticed the incident.

What would have helped is if the OP could give an idea of size and if the winner tucked into the loser.

Hammiepeters

In such cases, mobbing often occurs before a strike. Then is a sort of resignation to it. Unless of course the hawk has taken a fledgeling. You're right about the it not being a male in this case. I'd still bet on corvid. More information please OP.

sorella

We have seen small birds in a mixed mob attacking a cuckoo.

marlin vs

I've seen crow's mob a single crow and kill it, i'm not sure if it was a sick bird but it didn't seem to be very strong.