Birds Mobbing Raptors

whyulittle

Today I watched a Kestrel harrassing a Buzzard. A second Buzzard came in, but still the Kestrel didn't give up.

Yet earlier in the day, a pair of crows chased a Kestrel out of the area.

How can it run from a pair of similarly sized, fairly harmless crows, yet take on a pair of Buzzards twice its size with all their weaponry?

Kess73

Crows mobbing buzzards.

Starlings, crows, jackdaws, magpies, tits, and swallows mobbing sparrowhawks.


Starlings, crows etc mobbing Kestrels.


It is basic survival for a lot of species. They make enough noise and bluster and they seem like too much effort (most of the time for the lone predator) plus it can alert other birds in the area to the presence of the raptor meaning the raptor loses the chance to ambush, plus it often adds to the mobbing numbers.

Also the raptor is conscious on a primal level of the fact that engaging with mobbing birds that are of a similar size to itself comes with the risk of injury, so unless that raptor is very hungry or really riled, you will see it slowly leave the area.

Even watch ( or rather listen to) house sparrows when a sprawk has them pinned down in a hedge or tree. They will screech their heads off and at a higher pitch than normal in the hope of drawing in something to see off that sprawk. Basically see off one predator by drawing in a bigger one.

Mobbing does backfire every now and then, but the majority of the time the birds doing the mobbing get away with it.

One particular sprawk that I have watched for a long time does seem to be able to use it to her advanatge though at certain times of the year. I have posted about it before on here so will go with the somewhat shorter version now. Basically what would happen is the male would catch something like a small finch and go to ground with it. He then took it to the front of the house and starting plucking on the ground with some cover above him being provided by one solitary tree that stands alone in that part of the garden. Now the jackdaws are generally in the vicinity of the front of the house more often than the back of the house. They spot male sprawk and start to harry him with a magpie or two joining in. They hop on the ground near him, they cackle and caw.

Then one comes a little closer, comes under the tree and BANG, the female sprawk hits from her vantage point in the tree. She is on the corvid so fast that it does not see her coming. Game over for the corvid.

The first time I saw this I thought I just saw a bit of a fluke with the female just happening to be there. But then over the spell of a few months I saw the same thing happen three or four times and roughly in the same spot. Male sprawk goes to ground, corvids harry him, and the female sprawk hits from above. Now my regular female is a bit bigger than average for a female sprawk and she is quite distinctive as a result, but after watching her do this for a number of years and always at the same two times of the year (just before she lays the eggs, and just after that year's batch has fully fledged and are only receiving some feeding from the adults) I have little doubt that breeding pairs of sprawks can work as a rough team at certain times. Now it is not as cooperative as the loose pack hunting the social Harris hawk displays, but there is something there with some sprawks just before and just after the main body of the breeding season. It could be as simple as the area having a high number of corvids (which it does) and they have become a regular part for that particular female's diet, but the male's behaviour as the decoy/bait is fascinating to watch.

Birdnuts

whyulittle wrote: »

Today I watched a Kestrel harrassing a Buzzard. A second Buzzard came in, but still the Kestrel didn't give up.

Yet earlier in the day, a pair of crows chased a Kestrel out of the area.

How can it run from a pair of similarly sized, fairly harmless crows, yet take on a pair of Buzzards twice its size with all their weaponry?

Kestrels are far more agile then the bigger buzzards and typically wouldn't be on the buzzards menu anyways - buzzards are often hasselled by corvids like Jackdaws which the buzzards will hunt.

tricky D

Was out the back garden a few weeks ago having a ciggie when I heard a commotion a few hundred yards away. It looked like around 20 crows and gulls mobbing a sprawk. The bunch chased her around a bit until she made a beeline for the back garden and fled into a bunch of bushes and a tree, kind of ironically right beside our bird table. The crows took up position on the roof eaves but my presence and some minor encouragement from myself made them leave.

Ran in to get the camera which was nearby, but she somehow had escaped, so I missed a great photo op.

A few prior to that, we had a load of House Martins mobbing what looked like a Kestrel who was straight lining out of the area.

Scrappychimow

whyulittle wrote: »

Today I watched a Kestrel harrassing a Buzzard. A second Buzzard came in, but still the Kestrel didn't give up.

Yet earlier in the day, a pair of crows chased a Kestrel out of the area.

How can it run from a pair of similarly sized, fairly harmless crows, yet take on a pair of Buzzards twice its size with all their weaponry?

Crows can be vicious too, they have big powerful beaks , heres one fatally injuring a female sparrowhawk .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPg_kHTjpNI

And a jackdaw giving a kestrel a run for its money

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzLADnLsNRs

Mickeroo

Must say I found the first video slightly distressing!

whyulittle

Scrappychimow wrote: »

And a jackdaw giving a kestrel a run for its money

I stand corrected!

In my case the crows were having a right go at the Kestrel, and it in turn was having a right go at the Buzzards.

Kess73

Mickeroo wrote: »

Must say I found the first video slightly distressing!

Things like that are not pleasant to watch, but that's nature. I think if the general public saw what some of the animals they regard as cute can do, for example the robin, they would be shocked.

The sprawk in the first video had pretty much everything against her. Size, weight, strength, and crucially the element of surprise.

Clearpreso

I probably shouldn't ask... but what do robbins do that will make me think less of them?

Mickeroo

Clearpreso wrote: »

I probably shouldn't ask... but what do robbins do that will make me think less of them?

THey're fiercely territorial, I've seen a few vicious encounters between males. That's why you usually only see one.

Kess73

Clearpreso wrote: »

I probably shouldn't ask... but what do robbins do that will make me think less of them?

They can be very aggressive towards other robins, to the point where one of the fighting robins can be killed or die later thanks to the severity of it's injuries.


They can also take very aggressive stances towards other species, dunnocks in particular.

V Bull

Some photos of mobbings...

Hen Harrier & Raven..


Buzzard being harrased by Raven & 2 Hooded Crows..



Buzzard strikes back and Hoodie hits the dirt...:D