In a couple of recent posts (here and here), I’ve been amazed at how smart Corvids — ravens, crows, and magpies — can be. It turns out they can be pretty cheeky, too.
As we walk the dogs in the morning, my husband has taken to listening for the cawing of crow, ravens or magpies — if they are too raucous, he starts looking for the raptor that they are harassing.
It’s a good strategy — we’ve found a fair number of hawks and owls that way. And it worked again this morning.
We heard a Corvid racket in a tree in the neighborhood, and when we investigated, there were three crows and three magpies berating a red-tailed hawk.
I thought the hawk was pretty safe, because there were branches all around him. How were the Corvids going to get to him?
But I hadn’t counted on the brazenness of a magpie
See how the bird below the hawk is lined up right beneath it? Just a millisecond (literally) after I got this shot, the magpie shot up and tugged on the hawk’s tail feathers! It did it twice, just to make sure the hawk knew this could go on all day.
After being put on notice that the hawk was not amused, the magpies all flew off.
But the crows started buzzing the hawk much closer than I thought they could get. Evidently, the hawk agreed.
But even in leaving, the crows had to get the last word. They continued to harass the crow for several block.
And they felt pretty good about it, too. The crow in the bottom left has done a barrel roll and is now flying upside down, still in pursuit of the hawk!
Leave a Reply