Day at the lake (1 Viewer)

On Sunday I went to Thousands Hills State Park (a park in northern Missouri) with my Ornithology class. We saw all sorts of interesting stuff. A few firsts for me included a Baltimore Oriole, a lot of Warbling Vireos, a Yellow Warbler, a Yellow-rumped Warbler, an Orange-crowned Warbler, and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Another interesting thing (and the real reason I'm posting) is that we heard a European Starling doing some mocking. I had never heard this before. The most interesting mock it did was that of a Red-tailed Hawk scream. It was quite interesting hearing a smaller bird imitating one of the largest avian predators around these parts. Has anyone else heard that?

Well, if it feels threatened, any species that can mock (or mimic) very well will try and beat the predator at its own game by pretending to be a predator. If the "predator" call is of one that regularly hunts the predator that's stalking the bird, most likely the predator will back down.

Why was the european starling doing the mocking in the first place? Was it because you guys agitated it, or scared it? Or was it because there was a predator lurking nearby, such as a red-tailed hawk? Some hawks are known to eat birds, probably starlings too. Maybe this is why the starling was mocking the raptor, to fend it off.

European starlings rarely mock while singing or calling (correct me if I'm wrong).

I don't think anything besides our class was close to it and we weren't really that intimidating I don't think. It was just running through a serious of songs and happened to throw the Red-tailed hawk call in there. Very strange.

Hmm. According to my Sibley guide, Starlings call often include imitations of other birds' calls. Didn't know that. So anyway, there you have it. even though I haven't heard of it...