Crows Mobbing a Hawk

Onomea

Onomea

Member
Gold Supporter
Joined
May 16, 2005
Messages
15,476
Reaction score
37,616
Location
Oregon
Looking out my high picture windows just now, I watched as first one and then, in a few minutes, five crows mobbed a solitary hawk circling in the sky hunting. Ultimately the hawk flew off, the crows trailing it.

I realize this is a common occurrence, but why do crows do that, and why doesn't the hawk attack the crows to defend itself? (I can see how dealing with a half dozen crows would be impractical for the hawk, but it was initially just one crow harassing it.)

I would think that for the crows a more useful approach would be to wait for the hawk to kill something, and then, as a mob, steal it. Maybe, when the hawk has killed something, it is aggressive in defending its meal?

-----

I don't like crows, and chase them off my property with my trusty Daisy.

Once out walking in Tokyo, I saw two crows harassing a cat in an empty lot. They were on opposite sides of the cat, and if the cat turned to attack one, the other crow would immediately attack it from the rear. I picked up a rock, threw it at one of the crows, missing but chasing the crows off. My good deed for the day.
 
Register to hide this ad
Around here it's like they have an enforcer flying about. It sees something that could be a threat .. the bird will fly above it squawking like mad bringing in reinforcements.
 
taz666 said:
Around here it's like they have an enforcer flying about. It sees something that could be a threat .. the bird will fly above it squawking like mad bringing in reinforcements.
Click to expand...

ladder13 said:
They always send out a scout to see if it’s safe for them. I used to have them by the dozens until some pellet spray forced them to move to greener pastures.
Click to expand...

Are you guys saying that crows perceive hawks to be a threat? In the scene I describe above, the hawk was doing its best to ignore the single crow, and then ignore the mob. It became impossible, with all the dive bombing the crows were doing, so the hawk left.

I posted a few weeks ago about a hawk killing a rabbit in my yard. While squirrels and birds made themselves scarce while the hawk was here, I've wondered if hawks eat songbirds, because there are plenty of them around. Seems the many song birds would be easier prey, if less filling, than the very occasional rabbit.

Would a hawk kill a crow, either to eat or out of annoyance?
 
Last edited:
It's not just proper crows that do the mobbing thing. Grackles and mockingbirds will do it. I watched two mockingbirds teasing a cat on a wall and it was hysterical. One would get in front twitching his tail and squawking to distract the cat, while the second one would sneak in from behind and tweak the cat's tail. The cat would immediately about face to get his attacker who had quickly backed off and now started the squawking. Rinse and repeat. The mockingbirds here are aggressive enough to dive bomb a cat's tail while I've been petting the cat!! That was pretty funny as the cat looked round once with an expression that said, "Yeah? You and whose army?"

I saw one mockingbird hassling a pair of young kestrels that had been parked on the opposite roof ridge by their parents. The kestrels ignored the mockingbird as he kept on flying up in front flashing his wings and squawking. Then an adult kestrel returned just as this was happening. It went straight in for the merge and the mockingbird did a kind of stall turn and dived down the slope of the roof with the kestrel in hot pursuit. As the pair zoomed up the cul-de-sac a grackle in one of the trees decided to join in. There was quite a high-G furball for a few seconds until the kestrel pulled high and went back to the roof where its young were still sitting. Didn't see the mockingbird try to hassle the youngsters again that day.:D
 
Crows have excellent vision. They can see you approaching a window or glass door before you can get there ;)

IMG-2123.jpg
 
One of the most remarkable things I've seen was a group of crows chasing a medium sized hawk into a forested area, and then returning to a large dead tree across the road to uh, crow about it.

The crow who had been on the hawks's tail was in the top of the tree, holding forth about his bravery and skill.

From low out the forest the hawk burst out at full speed and killed the loudmouth in a burst of black feathers. The other members of the gang decided they had someplace else to be.

Hawks will kill and eat crows, especially the young in nests if they can get at them. But on this occasion, it seemed personal. It's been over 20 years now, and I can still see it clearly.
 
Last edited:
Twice I've seen a red shoulder nail a dove in my yard as trees full of grackles complained. Both times the hawk was harassed, one to the point of losing his kill and flying into the distance with a handful still trailing.


The second was while checking a noisy tree I decided to water the back fence and the 'pop' sounded practically in my ear. The hawk struggled to clear the roof and perched on a decrowned palm out front with a crowd gathering. I watched it go tree to tree 30-50 feet at a time harassed the entire time until he sucked up in a thick oak around the corner and fed in peace.


Find piles of down feathers with feet in them pretty regular and the occasional squirrel remains but the dove are the favorite prey down here. Can't imagine them going for songbirds, too much work for too little return.
 
I once saw a golden eagle get mobbed by ravens. Ravens are jet fighters while eagles are B-52's. No comparison in agility. The eagle finally fled south, trailing ravens. I'm pretty sure I saw one latch momentarily to the back of the eagle.
 
Watched 2 ravens and 3 magpies chase a bobcat off a road killed deer. Even after the bobcat walked away, they continued to pursue the bobcat for several hundred yards before it went out of sight. I kind of like watching ravens. Highly intelligent. Reported the most intelligent animal in North America next to man. Watched a game camera video of an Osprey sitting on a nest with 3 chicks. The adult Osprey took off at the sight of the raven. The raven pursued and as they got out of sight, the raven came back and a white blob can be seen on the ground. The raven then came back to the nest and killed 2 of the Osprey chick before the video ended.
 
I like crows a lot, but that's probably because I had one as a pet for 5 or 6 years when I was young. They are pretty smart and have a language far beyond just the caws most people recognize them by.

He or she, I never knew which, would fly along side the school bus every day and greet me when I got off. Jim, my crows name, would fly right next to me while I was on my bicycle and it was interesting to study the way he flew. My friends hated Jim because he would dive bomb their dogs and drive them half mad. I would have to take him home and put him in the garage just to keep the peace.

Once a realtor brought a couple to look at some land next to my parents property and my crow dive bombed and chased them back to their vehicle! It was all just fun for Jim, but he gave those folks quite a scare. We never saw the couple again and my parents bought the land!

I could tell many more stories, like hiding house keys, killing snakes, chasing everything out of the garden, going squirrel hunting with me, and how he loved to go for car rides perched atop the steering wheel when I first started driving.

I know they can be a pest and mean, but I miss Jim.

PS, I'm the one in the glasses.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20240616-211001_kindlephoto-454370.jpg
    Screenshot_20240616-211001_kindlephoto-454370.jpg
    17.6 KB · Views: 59
Last edited:
I was in the car sitting in a parking lot of a golf course outside Carlisle, PA, when I looked up and saw a hawk and some little birds in a dogfight. One of the little birds was able to get behind the hawk and start plucking tail feathers from the hawk.
 
Last edited:
A nesting pair of red tail hawks live on the mountain behind the State Capitol building. Probably 4th or 5th generation by now - watched them hunt squirrels on the Capitol lawn for years. One day a murder of crows started harassing a red tail sitting in a tall oak waiting on squirrels. In mid air, probably 100 feet off the ground, the red tail flipped over like a fighter jet and slapped the closest crow with both talons. The crow dropped like a rock, the murder flew off, and the red tail flew back to it's hilltop, ignoring the dead body on the lawn.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

1
Crows brought me electrical tape
Replies
17
Views
896
Rudi
R
D
Red tail hawk
Replies
10
Views
651
bdGreen
B
biku324
A Crook is a Crook
4 5 6
Replies
101
Views
4K
Ματθιας
Ματθιας
Rustyt1953
A prayer request.
2 3 4
Replies
79
Views
1K
JET4
J
LVSteve
The locals were unhappy (Hawk pictures)
2
Replies
20
Views
801
bdGreen
B

Latest posts

Back
Top