"Air to Air Combat - Bird Style" Topic

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Wyatt

I saw a photo of that earlier.

A great picture.

The local birds (sparrows, or finches) take them on from time to time too, as well as the local vultures, and usually seem to have the upper hand, errrr wing.

I've never seen them actually land on a bird before, but they do divebomb and peck at them. Occasionally, you actually see some feathers being lost as well.

Small birds are the fighters, and large birds are the heavy bombers of the natural world…..

The hawk, which is not a predator of the kingbird…

They might be after this.

As the kingbird rode bareback on the hawk…

Like the hawk was going to let him 'saddle up'.

Recently while cooking a couple of steaks on the grill I noticed feathers dropping out of the sky. A little searching and I spotted a Merlin Falcon having dinner high up in a tree behind our yard.

This is the third time I have seen a hawk or falcon having a meal in our yard or a neighbors yard.

Terry

The birds have evolved – they have aircraft carriers!

We used to get dive bombed by barn swallows when we lived in Nebraska. Little birds can be pretty fiesty, though I bet the Hawks are figuring out how to deal with this now.

They can get away with that against a Redtail, but attempting that on a Peregrine will likely be a short, bloody mistake.