when prey fights back (1 Viewer)

[cateyes]

Hello

I was wondering if anyone here has whitnessed or heard of prey actually fighting back agaisnt a large raptor and surviving being attacked? threwout my life while watching nature shows it seems as soon as the prey is caught theirs never a chance of escape and never seem to put up much of a fight. I was just wondering if this is ALWAYS the case?

 

[joee1949]

Hello

I was wondering if anyone here has whitnessed or heard of prey actually fighting back agaisnt a large raptor and surviving being attacked? threwout my life while watching nature shows it seems as soon as the prey is caught theirs never a chance of escape and never seem to put up much of a fight. I was just wondering if this is ALWAYS the case?

I have just seen 2 birds - seemed to be crows or ravens - attacking a large wedgetailed eagle who must have come into their territory or near their nest.

I can imagine they would fight back if attacked.

 

[alan_rymer]

On a recent TV nature programme here they showed a Peregrine Falcon swooping down and taking a fully fledged small corvid ( Jackdaw ) which had left the nest and was perched on a ledge halfway down a quarry. The Peregrine landed, or the weight of the Jackdaw pulled it down, in foliage at the base of the quarry where it was immediately set upon by flock of adult Jackdaws. The Peregrine released the youngster and was forced away, the youngster seemed to survive the experience apparently without harm!.

 

[Michael Frankis]

I saw a Pallid Swift caught by a Sparrowhawk at the Rila Monastery in Bulgaria, captured as it flew from its nest hole. The Sparrowhawk took the swift to a perch, where the swift successfully fought off the hawk and escaped.

This didn't surprise my Bulgarian host at all, who when working with breeding Pallids in Sofia, found them to be very aggressive, clawing and pecking vigorously when handled, much more aggressive than either Common or Alpine Swifts.

Michael

 

[Woody]

I once saw a sparrowhawk mantling over a green woodpecker as if it was all over but the woodie was kicking up a hell of a noise and stabbing at the sprawk with its' beak. The hawk was forced to give up to avoid injury and the woodie flew off, seemingly OK. The sparrowhawk was a youngster, female from the size, and I guess she learned a valuable lesson that day!

Woody

 

[peanut]

I once saw a Tawny fought off by a mouse !

nah only kiddin . chuckle.

The only event I have witnessed is with the big cats on big cat diary when the Cheeta received a fatal mauling from the horns of its prey Can't remember which now.

I can't believe the ferocity with which the starlings attack each other . I have seen many locked together in the air fall to the road still with beaks and claws locked together and cars driving round them in the road

 

[Stonechat2]

I believe Starlings have a bit of a reputation for dogadly fighting of there attackers.
I was up Bggeridge earlier on this year and a sparrowhawk was sitting on top of this huge tree looking at the House Martins, Swallows and Swifts , then they all seemed to start attacking the Sparrowhawk, darting in and out literally only a metre away from the predator, until finally the Sparrowhawk went on his way with a dent in his pride i should think.

 

[kpmerlin]

I've seen this happen on several occasions - in particular, white-tailed jackrabbits in the US central plains are TOUGH CRITTERS!

I've seen pheasant stand up to Red-tails on the ground and get them to back down. The white-tail jacks will stand up to many birds (I've seen them spook Red-tails and goshawks). I've also seen american kestrels battle it out with starlings - sometimes they hold on and sometimes they get kicked off.

I'm thinking that anytime a bird of prey pushes it's natural prey a bit (desperate, inexperienced, "too good of an opportunity to pass up") it can and does happen all the time. This is my first post to this list - not sure what protocol and such is.

 

[Michael Frankis]

Hi KP,

Welcome to BirdForum - and a very good first post, too!

Inexperienced young birds of prey, too right!, reminds me of a young Peregrine I saw, which started off having a go at a Redshank ('bout the same size as Gtr Yellowlegs), thought that was too small, so then it went after a Curlew; when that flew off, it got its sights higher and went for some Herring Gulls . . . and failing on them too, went for a Grey Heron ('bout the same size as Great Blue Heron)! . . . Needless to say, it didn't succeed in getting anything

Michael

 

[StevieEvans]

Ive witnessed a very similar & noisy event to Woody's, with same species & outcome.

Michael thats a great one with the swift. One in a million.

SE.

 

[Mickymouse]

I once saw a Tawny fought off by a mouse !

nah only kiddin . chuckle.

Saw a mouse kill a Tawny once.........got stuck in his throat.

only kiddin just couldn't resist one of the old ones.

Mick

 

[Michael Frankis]

There was the case of the octopus which killed a Brown Skua by chewing its way out of the skua's stomach (after being swallowed whole, alive) . . .

Michael

 

[Nightranger]

I once saw a sparrowhawk mantling over a green woodpecker as if it was all over but the woodie was kicking up a hell of a noise and stabbing at the sprawk with its' beak. The hawk was forced to give up to avoid injury and the woodie flew off, seemingly OK. The sparrowhawk was a youngster, female from the size, and I guess she learned a valuable lesson that day!

Woody

I never saw the event but we had a green woodpecker brought into the office that had obviously survived a sparrowhawk attack. The injuries were at least a day or two old but were not made by a cat or any other predator. Interestingly, we discussed this in the BoP killing methods threads and sparrowhawks are surprisingly inefficient killers and this raises some interesting issues about their success rate with regard to the intended prey species. Anyway, we were grateful that the woodpecker stayed silent in the hand because they a responsible for a condition caled 'ringer's ear' (possibly...LOL) and I guess the sprawk had been similarly persuaded of the error of its ways too. We put the bird in a box overnight (yes, what is wrong with this picture...LOL) and inevitably, the bird had to be recaptured in the morning. Sadly, this character died a few days later, almost certainly as a result of secondary infection.

 

[malskelton]

We often have a Sparrowhawk hunting in my parents garden, takes the odd Greenfinch, Sparrow etc. One day my dad heard a strange sound and went out into the conservatory. It turned out that the Sparrowhawk had attacked a Collared Dove which was the source of the noise.

My dad obviously disturbed the Sparrowhawk who released the Dove and flew off. The Dove looked pretty much dead ( no visible wounds, just looked like it had died of shook ), which made my dad wish he hadn't gotten up !!

Ten minutes later, Dove decided it wasn't dead and carried on feeding and flying as normal !!!

Not exactly fighting back - but still surviving

Mal Skelton

 

[Bluetail]

Not for the squeamish

There was the case of the octopus which killed a Brown Skua by chewing its way out of the skua's stomach (after being swallowed whole, alive) . . .

Michael

Details and some pics here:
http://www.zestforbirds.co.za/skuasquid.html

 

[Mickymouse]

There was the case of the octopus which killed a Brown Skua by chewing its way out of the skua's stomach (after being swallowed whole, alive) . . .

Michael

And I thought this was a worse joke than mine. Yuk!!!!

Mick

 

[ejg220]

Getting skunked

I worked at at Raptor center for many years, and often saw bite marks on the feet of Great horned owls. Since many of them smelled from skunk, we assumed it was from skunks fighting back.

 

[saluki]

Corvids will often fight back against Peregrines, usually when a young or inexperienced hawk has 'bound to' it's prey, rather than disabling it in the stoop. Even one crow can put up quite a fight (I remember a Peregrine tiercel that was almost blinded by a Hoodie that had 'footed' the little tiercel with it's back and inner toe in the corner of it's eyes). If the crow is a member of a family party the Peregrine can sometimes be in for a trouncing. Hares will attempt (often successfully) to kick attacking Goshawks off, even the humble rabbit can cause a male Gos problems. I've heard of - or witnessed - rats, stoats, weasels and grey squirrels all fighting back against hawks and small eagles. Some birds throw raptors off through shear strength - cock pheasants, drake mallard, etc. As I intimated earlier, if it comes to a battle on the ground, a Peregrine isn't that well equipped - unlike a Gos for instance, which has extremely powerful feet. Some Peregrines will refuse to tackle prey that they've knocked down but haven't killed (forget the idea that Peregrines usually knock the head off their prey in the first stoop - that doesn't normally happen), whereas others are willing to 'mix it' on the ground. I've also owned two ferrets that have been attacked by raptors, one killed by a female Gos, the other - grabbed by a Red-Tail - proved too much to handle!

saluki

 

[OwlTalon]

In Yosemite NP, a raven attacked a ground squirrel. It pinned it with its feet and pecked it repeatedly on the head. But the mother squirrel attacked the raven. After a scuffle, the raven released the baby and retreated a short distance away.

 

[Keithec]

I've seen sparrowhawks lose prey. I think some birds when caught will instinctively not fight back but wait for an opportunity to escape. I saw a starling do that recently. A sparrowhawk had it on the ground, then took off and as it passed a hedge the starling suddenly dropped and flew into the hedge. Saw the same sort of thing once with a blackbird escaping from a sparrowhawk.

A friend recently described how he had seen a peregrine take a magpie over a rocky gulley. The magpie somehow twisted round so that it had grabbed both of the peregrines legs in its claws. This apparantly made it impossible for the peregrine to land and be in control and so it released its grip. The magpie didn't however until it was at a point where it could drop into the gulley and to safety from another attack. And that is what it did!

Keith