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My experience has been that a smaller bird will attack the bird of prey relentlessly till they're on their way.
Tru dat. Small birds are more maneuverable. If it's pure bird-on-bird aerial combat, the bird with less mass will pretty much always have the advantage; they can get behind the big bird and just peck it from above until they feel like stopping. It's a very rare inversion of the usual rules of Nature Fight.
Really depends on the individual birds in question IMO. A red tailed hawk for example is really best optimized for prey on the ground like rabbits. On the other hand, a peregrine falcon is optimized for aerial prey and they eat everything from hummingbirds to geese
Doesn't the peregrine take those out at mach 69 from the air and not while the cocky little shit is talking smack in his ear on a branch though?
Get fucked big falcon. This is lil birb territory.
That’s what they’re famous for. However, they can catch prey like songbirds by simply being faster and more agile than the quarry, chasing them down in horizontal flight. Some journal articles credit it with a horizontal top speed in the 90 mph range.
O_o ... I've got... I've got a nest to attend to...
Get outta here with your actual domain knowledge
I was watching some crows chase around an eagle the other day. The pathetic squee noises it made like it’s saying “I toldja I was sorry I ate your babies” has me wondering why we have all fallen for this whole eagles are a symbol of power gobbledegook.
Mostly less efficient vultures, but way more magnificent, so they've got that going for them. (In Australia, so the Wedge Tail eagle is the niche filler and very much a scavenger, always a pleasure to see tho)
Bald eagles are amazing fishers. They will take any opportunities for free meals, but they are also exceptional hunters.
3 crows that hang out near my house and join my chickens and ducks when I toss scratch and treats out have made it their mission to keep said birds safe.
Wife and I watched them hassle a hawk until it flew away, gen they came back and chilled on our fence. Tossed them some French fries for the work well done
I watched a falcon casually tear a smaller bird into pieces and spit its feathers under a tree in my front yard over the course of 20 minutes
I'm not super familiar with falcon, it was mostly red tails and sharp shinned hawks where I grew up. Smaller birds were always hyper aggressive with the larger predatory birds. I assumed they were trying to chase the larger birds away from their nest or out of their territory. I've never seen a red-tail go after a bird. Its usually snakes, mice, and rabbits.
I saw a hawk and a Robin going at it one day. It fucked me up when the Robin hit the hawk and it started to fall. Didn't see the aftermath as I was driving but either way. Never expected a hawk to lose against a Robin.
Robins are aggressively territorial. Pretty much every time you hear them chirping it's either saying "FUCK OFF!!!" or "FUCK ME!!!".
I feel like that's most animals though lol