Fascinating behaviour/verify identification! birds of prey!

[Henryjosman]

spotted across a ridge near the cuillin mountains on the isle of skye. these birds were very far from me but i watched them for 15/20 minutes beofre they drifted out of view and i have cropped the image in a fair amount and made it as clear as possible. the larger bird is definetly a golden eagle. howeever it was being mobbed continously by the significantly smaller bird which i believe is a buzzard? i was wondering if i was right with my identifications & whether this was usual behaviour? was a fantastic sight to watch and had seen two white tailed eagles and two other golden eagles today too.

[Beekeeper]

Pretty sure what you have photographed is a Buzzard.

Ian

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Beekeeper

Pretty sure what you have photographed is a Buzzard.

Ian

its hard to say from the pic but i would concur with beekeeper , two buzzards - the larger being female and being "mobbed" / pursued or courted by the smaller male.

you wouldnt expect a lone buzzard to e mobbing an eagle - mobbing is usually as the name suggests a mob of smaller birds sucgh as corvids harrasing a raptor

[Henryjosman]

ts hard to say from the pic but i would concur with beekeeper , two buzzards - the larger being female and being "mobbed" / pursued or courted by the smaller male.

you wouldnt expect a lone buzzard to e mobbing an eagle - mobbing is usually as the name suggests a mob of smaller birds sucgh as corvids harrasing a raptor

the larger bird was definately in fact i was just interrupted from writing this message because we saw another golden eagle! (had a very good day for sightings now on 4 golden and 2 white tailed eagles and a couple of ravens too.) however i am 90% certain that the larger bird was a goldn eagle it was considerably larger. i know very little of bird of prey behaviour but i did think it was odd that such a smaller bird was attacking the eagle.

[aeshna5]

Agree larger bird is a Golden Eagle - the wing shape with the pinched in base too is diagnostic. Last year I was alerted to a Golden Eagle in the Highlands by a mobbing Buzzard.

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by aeshna5

Agree larger bird is a Golden Eagle - the wing shape with the pinched in base too is diagnostic. Last year I was alerted to a Golden Eagle in the Highlands by a mobbing Buzzard.

okay - i stand corrected and defer to your greater knowledge

is it usual for buzzards to "mob" solo ? - i thought the whole concept of mobbing was for smaller birds to gang up to handle a larger one

[Jason Green]

Evening all,

I suppose 'Mob' may be the wrong term then (I'd never considered the singular/plural definition before! ) - either way the behaviour is the same, to remove a threat from it's territory unless I have missed something!

You'll sometimes see a Crow chase a Heron away singularly. I've never witnessed a Buzzard chasing a threat off though - I suppose there isn't much bigger than than them that they'd need to group up against generally though (except here!).

Take care,

Jason

[RoyW]

Like Aeshna has already said, the photo does show a Golden Eagle, with the smaller bird also correctly identified as a Common Buzzard!

Originally Posted by eeyore

is it usual for buzzards to "mob" solo ? - i thought the whole concept of mobbing was for smaller birds to gang up to handle a larger one

It is actually very common for single birds to "mob" birds of prey, and small birds of prey regularly mob the larger ones. This is especially likely during the breeding season when one bird of a pair may be on a nest somewhere nearby, and the other is keen for the larger raptor to leave the area (but will also happen at other times of year.
Most raptors rely largely on the element of surprise to catch their prey, so a bird that is mobbing a raptor is usually at a relatively low risk - and the act of mobbing draws attention which means the mobbed species will usually leave the area for a better chance of hunting elsewhere.

When only one bird is involved in harassing a bird of prey it is a bit of a stretch to call it "mobbing" - but that is the accepted term for the action, even when a mob is not involved!

[Henryjosman]

thank you for the responses it did seem to us (as royw suggested) at the time that the smaller bird may be protecting something as he was much more active whereas the eagle seemed to just be moving on slowly.

perhaps the mobbing term was wrong but he was certianly (in my dads terms) 'having a good go at him' and we did see close contact a couple of times. was brilliant to watch and glad the identifications were correct.

[ChrisJB]

Your photo Henry reminds me of a very similar scene of a buzzard mobbing a golden eagle, in the Cuillin area (Glen Brittle) I witnessed a few years ago. The area is very reliable for golden eagles. Who knows, they might even be the same birds, still 'at it' and part of a long running feud lasting years and years. .

Regards, Chris