A northern harrier catches up to a short-earred owl, knocks the small rodent (vole) she was carrying out of her grasp, and catches it’s rapidly descending prize before it meets the ground. Harrier has been known to steal a vole froma short- eared owl in mid-air. This is an example of kleptoparasitism, which is when one bird steals another’s food.
I’ve never seen this in real life, but I have seen like half a dozen sparrows chasing around a hawk that was stalking one of their nests. It was interesting to see the cooperation. “Not today, Satan!”
Mobbing (the little birds chasing off the big ones) is very interesting to get into. It’s one of the few things where animals of different species will work together for the same purpose!
I adore my jays. I switched feeding strategies in my backyard to a trough-style feeder to make extra room for the little birds and prevent the Jays from bullying everyone else out.
One cool thing I’ve noticed is the Jays acting like a (very loud) lookout alarm for all the other species. The Jays scream, and everyone runs away and hides. I’ve seen it when the hawk comes poking around, and once when a cat found its way onto my deck.
Heck, the Jays have me trained at this point! Whenever I hear their…delightful voices…I look out the window to see who my new visitor is. They’re nature’s Ring cam!
Once I was lucky enough to watch this irl. An Osprey had caught a fish and was flying off when a bald eagle flew at the osprey and started swooping at it. The osprey dropped the fish and the eagle caught it mid air, then the osprey went on the offensive and got the fish back. It went back and forth like that for a couple minutes before the eagle finally flew off with the fish. They never once dropped the fish, just kept catching it mid air. One of the coolest things to get to see. Wish I had video of it, but this was before phone videos were worth bothering with.
I am too germaphobe when it comes to food. I don’t eat or drink anything even a family member has put their face in. Plus anything in an office fridge I consider to have been in there for at least 6 months! 🤢
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