Why mob a Purple Martin?

[Rick Wright-3]

I've posted at http://birdaz.com/blog a couple of lackluster photos of
Purple Martins mobbed by House Finches. This is a very common behavior here
in the southwest, but I can't figure out why they would do it: what, besides
the fairly remote potential for nest site competition, could move the
finches to such enmity?
Somebody out there must know the answer!
--
Rick Wright

Managing Director, WINGS
http://wingsbirds.com
http://birdaz.com, http://birdaz.com/blog

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[Marcel Gahbauer]

> Somebody out there must know the answer!

Probably true, but I'm afraid I'm not that 'somebody' in this case.
However, in a similar vein the mobbing of hawks by crows seems out of
proportion (in both frequency and intensity) to the threat the hawks pose.  

On that note, I've been meaning to mention an encounter I observed last week
while doing some field work around Edmonton, Alberta.  Two crows were
harassing a perched Red-tailed Hawk at length - and since the hawk was
barely flinching, I didn't watch for too long, letting myself instead get
distracted by work :-).  All of a sudden I heard a horrific scream, and
looked over just in time to see the hawk flying away with one of the crows
in its talons!  I wish I had seen how it happened, since I've watched
countless hundreds of such interactions, and until now the crows always
seemed to get away unscathed.  Has anyone else seen them push their luck too
far and end up getting grabbed by their intended victim?

Marcel Gahbauer
Calgary AB / Montreal QC
marcel@...

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[Gail Mackiernan]

My husband and I had a similar experience with Red-tailed Hawk vs. Crow --
we were doing the annual mid-winter gull survey at the (now, alas, defunct)
Laytonsville Landfill in Maryland. The landfill used to attract huge numbers
of gulls, but also crows (mostly American Crow), vultures and a few
Red-tailed Hawks which probably fed on the abundant rats.

Anyway, we were driving up the dump service road past an area that had been
filled and then covered with earth. There were about 300 crows sitting
silently on the ground, spread out into a large circle. In the center of
that circle was a 15'-wide open area and in the center of that open area, a
Red-tail with its foot on a dead crow. All the crows were staring at the
hawk with a look as if to say, "Wow, I didn't know they could do THAT!"
Unfortunately we had missed the "moment of truth" so unsure how the crow met
its demise, but assumed it got too bold in harassing the hawk.

Gail Mackiernan
Silver Spring, MD


on 06/27/2009 11:06 PM, Marcel Gahbauer at marcel@...
wrote:

> On that note, I've been meaning to mention an encounter I observed last week
> while doing some field work around Edmonton, Alberta.  Two crows were
> harassing a perched Red-tailed Hawk at length - and since the hawk was
> barely flinching, I didn't watch for too long, letting myself instead get
> distracted by work :-).  All of a sudden I heard a horrific scream, and
> looked over just in time to see the hawk flying away with one of the crows
> in its talons!  I wish I had seen how it happened, since I've watched
> countless hundreds of such interactions, and until now the crows always
> seemed to get away unscathed.  Has anyone else seen them push their luck too
> far and end up getting grabbed by their intended victim?
>

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[Jbird558]

Hello Chatters,
 
Have been reading of these encounters with great interest, as I've seen
Crows bombing Red-tails many times. We have nesting Peregrines in downtown
Harrisburg. In late April, a day or two before the eggs hatched, a Crow made the
mistake of getting on the nest ledge. The adult male falcon took care of
the Crow very quickly. A gal who has an office right inside from where the
nest ledge is heard the commotion, and was able to look out through a little
opening onto the ledge and witness the Crow's demise about a foot away from
her.
 
Jane Barnette
Harrisburg, PA
**************A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy
steps!
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JunestepsfooterNO62)

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[james gibson]

Several years ago I was floating on Puget Sound near Friday Harbor.  I saw an osprey being seriously chased by a bald eagle.  I didn't see how the whole thing started but the osprey just barely escaped before  the eagle turned and flew away.  I always think of smaller birds harrassing larger ones but, as I said, I don't know if this event started that way or not.
 
Jim Gibson
Chadron NE
 


--- On Mon, 6/29/09, Jbird558@... <Jbird558@...> wrote:


From: Jbird558@... <Jbird558@...>
Subject: Re: [BIRDCHAT] Hawks 1, Crows 0
To: BIRDCHAT@...
Date: Monday, June 29, 2009, 8:33 AM


Hello Chatters,

Have been reading of these encounters with great interest, as I've seen
Crows bombing Red-tails many times. We have nesting Peregrines in downtown
Harrisburg. In late April, a day or two before the eggs hatched, a Crow made the
mistake of getting on the nest ledge. The adult male falcon took care of
the Crow very quickly. A gal who has an office right inside from where the
nest ledge is heard the commotion, and was able to look out through a little
opening onto the ledge and witness the Crow's demise about a foot away from
her.

Jane Barnette
Harrisburg, PA
**************A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy
steps!
(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221823281x1201398699/aol?redir=http://www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=668072&hmpgID=62&bcd=
JunestepsfooterNO62)

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[Jules Levin]

Here in Los Angeles I've seen two different crow/hawk
encounters.  One right over my head, looked like WW II air combat --a
flock of fighter planes (crows) trying to get over the bomber (hawk),
which was spiraling ever higher.  The other case was more like a
chase, and I only saw it for seconds as I drove under it.
But if you think about it, the fun-loving crows wouldn't be playing
chicken with a hawk unless there was some potential risk.  The early
AM street races here in LA wouldn't be exciting if occasionally there
weren't a flaming crash.  Also, evolutionarily, there wouldn't be so
many hawks in this crow-rich town if they could be bullied by crows
with impunity.
Crow smarts:
Once, while waiting in my car in a parking lot, a fellow walking by
crumpled a small snack bag and let it fall to the pavement.  Within
seconds, and unseen by me sitting 3 or 4 feet away in my car, a crow
landed and strolled up to the bag, bent down, and peeked into it.
Satisfied it was empty, it flew away.   I wondered if it was
following that bag while it was still in the guy's hand.

Jules Levin
Los Angeles

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[Terrie Milligan]

I live in the Acton/Agua Dulce area.  We have the larger raven here.  A LOT
of ravens.  When a red tail flies over, it's moved by a hundred or so ravens
and it leaves the area.  Those guys do dive bomb the hawk mercilessly.  

I've always assumed that the ravens were protecting their nests...?

Terrie Milligan
Acton/Agua Dulce
North LA County, CA

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[Jeff Bouton]

When you spend the better part of a decade standing on hawk watch platforms spring & fall or sitting in hawk trapping blinds, and then spend 10+ hours a day staring at Peregrine Falcon eyries in summer and then work on winter population studies of varying raptors, you naturally wind up with a BUNCH of these stories... enough that I could easily babble on for weeks likely.
 
At any rate, I have at least one anecdote observed from the hawk watch platform in Cape May in 1987 where the score was reversed. CROW 1, HAWK 0!
 
One afternoon while viewing from the platform a Fish Crow began harrassing a Kestrel in front of the platform. The two eventually wound up grappling and both spun to the ground out in front of the platform disappearing into the tall phragmites marsh. Soon after the plummet another crow winged into the same spot. You could here the crows and the Kestrel for a short while, then just some crow noise. The Crows re-emerged after some minutes but the many eyes on the platform never saw any sign of the kestrel again!
 
Best,
 
Jeff Bouton
Port Charlotte, FL
jbouton2@...


--- On Mon, 6/29/09, Gail Mackiernan <katahdinss@...> wrote:


From: Gail Mackiernan <katahdinss@...>
Subject: [BIRDCHAT] Hawks 1, Crows 0
To: BIRDCHAT@...
Date: Monday, June 29, 2009, 8:29 AM


My husband and I had a similar experience with Red-tailed Hawk vs. Crow --
we were doing the annual mid-winter gull survey at the (now, alas, defunct)
Laytonsville Landfill in Maryland. The landfill used to attract huge numbers
of gulls, but also crows (mostly American Crow), vultures and a few
Red-tailed Hawks which probably fed on the abundant rats.

Anyway, we were driving up the dump service road past an area that had been
filled and then covered with earth. There were about 300 crows sitting
silently on the ground, spread out into a large circle. In the center of
that circle was a 15'-wide open area and in the center of that open area, a
Red-tail with its foot on a dead crow. All the crows were staring at the
hawk with a look as if to say, "Wow, I didn't know they could do THAT!"
Unfortunately we had missed the "moment of truth" so unsure how the crow met
its demise, but assumed it got too bold in harassing the hawk.

Gail Mackiernan
Silver Spring, MD


on 06/27/2009 11:06 PM, Marcel Gahbauer at marcel@...
wrote:

> On that note, I've been meaning to mention an encounter I observed last week
> while doing some field work around Edmonton, Alberta.  Two crows were
> harassing a perched Red-tailed Hawk at length - and since the hawk was
> barely flinching, I didn't watch for too long, letting myself instead get
> distracted by work :-).  All of a sudden I heard a horrific scream, and
> looked over just in time to see the hawk flying away with one of the crows
> in its talons!  I wish I had seen how it happened, since I've watched
> countless hundreds of such interactions, and until now the crows always
> seemed to get away unscathed.  Has anyone else seen them push their luck too
> far and end up getting grabbed by their intended victim?
>

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[Michael Wiegand]

that would be Crow-1, Falcon-0


Michael Wiegand
Pearl, Idaho
 
208-859-3643-c
208-286-0506-h

www.habiscapes.com

"the truth is out there!"


 

> Date: Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:15:20 -0700
> From: jbouton2@...
> Subject: Re: [BIRDCHAT] Hawks 1, Crows 0
> To: BIRDCHAT@...
>
> When you spend the better part of a decade standing on hawk watch platforms spring & fall or sitting in hawk trapping blinds, and then spend 10+ hours a day staring at Peregrine Falcon eyries in summer and then work on winter population studies of varying raptors, you naturally wind up with a BUNCH of these stories... enough that I could easily babble on for weeks likely.
>  
> At any rate, I have at least one anecdote observed from the hawk watch platform in Cape May in 1987 where the score was reversed. CROW 1, HAWK 0!
>  
> One afternoon while viewing from the platform a Fish Crow began harrassing a Kestrel in front of the platform. The two eventually wound up grappling and both spun to the ground out in front of the platform disappearing into the tall phragmites marsh. Soon after the plummet another crow winged into the same spot. You could here the crows and the Kestrel for a short while, then just some crow noise. The Crows re-emerged after some minutes but the many eyes on the platform never saw any sign of the kestrel again!
>  
> Best,
>  
> Jeff Bouton
> Port Charlotte, FL
> jbouton2@...
>
>
> --- On Mon, 6/29/09, Gail Mackiernan <katahdinss@...> wrote:
>
>
> From: Gail Mackiernan <katahdinss@...>
> Subject: [BIRDCHAT] Hawks 1, Crows 0
> To: BIRDCHAT@...
> Date: Monday, June 29, 2009, 8:29 AM
>
>
> My husband and I had a similar experience with Red-tailed Hawk vs. Crow --
> we were doing the annual mid-winter gull survey at the (now, alas, defunct)
> Laytonsville Landfill in Maryland. The landfill used to attract huge numbers
> of gulls, but also crows (mostly American Crow), vultures and a few
> Red-tailed Hawks which probably fed on the abundant rats.
>
> Anyway, we were driving up the dump service road past an area that had been
> filled and then covered with earth. There were about 300 crows sitting
> silently on the ground, spread out into a large circle. In the center of
> that circle was a 15'-wide open area and in the center of that open area, a
> Red-tail with its foot on a dead crow. All the crows were staring at the
> hawk with a look as if to say, "Wow, I didn't know they could do THAT!"
> Unfortunately we had missed the "moment of truth" so unsure how the crow met
> its demise, but assumed it got too bold in harassing the hawk.
>
> Gail Mackiernan
> Silver Spring, MD
>
>
> on 06/27/2009 11:06 PM, Marcel Gahbauer at marcel@...
> wrote:
>
> > On that note, I've been meaning to mention an encounter I observed last week
> > while doing some field work around Edmonton, Alberta.  Two crows were
> > harassing a perched Red-tailed Hawk at length - and since the hawk was
> > barely flinching, I didn't watch for too long, letting myself instead get
> > distracted by work :-).  All of a sudden I heard a horrific scream, and
> > looked over just in time to see the hawk flying away with one of the crows
> > in its talons!  I wish I had seen how it happened, since I've watched
> > countless hundreds of such interactions, and until now the crows always
> > seemed to get away unscathed.  Has anyone else seen them push their luck too
> > far and end up getting grabbed by their intended victim?
> >
>
> BirdChat Guidelines: http://www.ksu.edu/audubon/chatguidelines.html
> Archives: http://listserv.arizona.edu/archives/birdchat.html
>
>
>
>
>
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