Bird of Prey mobbing

[DuncanE]

Yesterday while out in my garden I observed a mobbing of a bird of prey by a group of crows. Nothing unsual there. But the BoP soon turned on the mobbing crows and had a go back, much to the surprise of the crows.

I couldn't make out what the bird was, being quite high. But I did manage to see a light brown colour when using binoculars. Is this likely to have been a female sparrow hawk? (I was smaller than a buzzard.)

Are there any other bird of pray species who give as good as they get when mobbed?

[Gill Catton]

Could it have been a juvenille peregrine? They are pretty brown on top but obviously more of a falcon shape (more pointed wings) but they are suprisingly heavy set

[DuncanE]

That did cross my mind, but do juv. peregrins have a brown underside? It did look bulky almost as bulky as the crows.

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by DuncanE

That did cross my mind, but do juv. peregrins have a brown underside? It did look bulky almost as bulky as the crows.

no its a sort of buff colour and a bit streaky - could come across as light brown at distance esp of the sun is behind the bird perhaps.........

[mrs fish]

It does sound like a sparrow hawk, I see them quite a bit being mobbed by gulls and corvids, they often try and take a swipe back

I don't understand why though as their food is different?

[paulchandler6]

I think Sparrowhawk sounds the best bet. However we do have Peregrine breeding in the south of the county, so I wouldnt discount that one just yet.

Paul

[DuncanE]

I'll keep an open mind on that but I am 90% sure that it was a Sparrowhawk. I do see them occasionally trying to pick off starlings in the local reed bed across the road from me but thats usually 10-20m away not several 100m into the sun.

Then I still have that 10% that says it was my 1st wild peregrine. A win-win situation maybe?

[mrs fish]

I would of thought that a peregrine would fly off over a 100 mph if being mobbed ?

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by mrs fish

I would of thought that a peregrine would fly off over a 100 mph if being mobbed ?

A peregine can out pace a crow, although in level flight not by the degree it can either in climbing or, most particularly, in 'stoop'. The peregine is designed to be highly efficient in gliding mode - if you watch them for any length of time they seem to barely twitch a wing tip, let alone flap - yet soar along for mile after mile. Getting mixed up with crows is energy wasting and most mature peregrines just seem to carry on their 'patrol' unless the crows or gulls make life too difficult.

For most raptors having their flight feathers in good condition is essential to economical flight and getting involved in a squabble with crows and gulls yields little benefit but exposes the raptor to likely damage of those valuable flight feathers. Any retaliatory response is likely to be a result of inexperience.

CM

[mrs fish]

CM, do you know why they get mobbed?

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by mrs fish

CM, do you know why they get mobbed?

Definitively ? Well no. I'm sure there must have been lots of research on this, though the only thing I'm aware of are experiments with raptor shaped 'aerofoils' which demonstrated that all sorts of birds simply responded to the shape rather than needing an actual raptor to be present. The type of response was dependent on the species, prey, competitor etc.

Crows and Gulls - the most common mobbers of raptors are to some extent competitors with raptors but also when young are potential prey so a behaviour that involves driving the raptor away would clearly have species survival benefit.

I once saw several magpies and a common crow giving a very hard time to an eagle (not sure what kind - not a massive bird but way larger than the crow) that was truanting from a falconer and perched on a house chimney. A bizzare spectacle given that it was only a mile from the centre of large English city.

Anyway I appreciate the gulls' habit of mobbing - their cries are a good alert for when there's a peregine about and they do sometimes force a peregine to a lower height where one can get a better view.

CM

[mrs fish]

Yes the gulls and crows have often alerted me to the sparrowhawks presence, I was worried that the young hawks wouldn't be able to leave their nest site this year but of course they did

Thanks