Photo by Baba-Vulic Aleksandar
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.
That vole can't catch a break! ๐ฎ
So mean!!
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!
Hell yeah, little Jay, get it!
I love jays, they are so quirky and badass.
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!
What a fancy, poopy, loud, cute hat!
It's like one of those wacky hats from the royal wedding. Princess Eugenie looks to be getting swarmed by a Jay here:
Ah, yes, the British posh, they both look like they would fight for that vole in much the same manner as the birbs, but without the elegance.
"I call it.... The Aristocrats!"
Yeah they call that behavior "mobbing". You can actually use this to spot owls in the wild!