Posted by Roger Kirchen on February 26, 2012 at 2:33 AM
The embedded photos are severe crops with low technical quality. I post them, as composite, in the forum to illustrate a behavior that I have observed during mobbing. The mobbing bird lands briefly on the back or head of the bird being mobbed and now has a vantage point for harassing that bird. I took up bird photography last year and though I had seen mobbing, I had never observed this behavior.
Top row: Red-winged Blackbird lands on back of Red-tailed Hawk. Not sure if he has plucked a feather or not. He was gone again in less than a second.
Bottom row: Eastern Kingbird has landed on the back a of Red-tailed Hawk and is pulling on a head feather. The last photo shows the Eastern Kingbird tweeting on the back of the RTH before leaving.
I have a similar sequence (low technical quality) of a RTH landing on the head of a Bald Eagle and pushing it into a shallow dive. Plus I missed a closer shot at a RWB on a RTH. I'll keep my eyes peeled and the camera ready.
Discussion
1 repliesTop row: Red-winged Blackbird lands on back of Red-tailed Hawk. Not sure if he has plucked a feather or not. He was gone again in less than a second.
Bottom row: Eastern Kingbird has landed on the back a of Red-tailed Hawk and is pulling on a head feather. The last photo shows the Eastern Kingbird tweeting on the back of the RTH before leaving.
I have a similar sequence (low technical quality) of a RTH landing on the head of a Bald Eagle and pushing it into a shallow dive. Plus I missed a closer shot at a RWB on a RTH. I'll keep my eyes peeled and the camera ready.