From Cuong Nguyen
I was speechless when I witnessed this large raven attacking the great horned owl. Both came out OK after that, and the great horned flew away. Shot was taken last year in Ottawa.
From Cuong Nguyen
I was speechless when I witnessed this large raven attacking the great horned owl. Both came out OK after that, and the great horned flew away. Shot was taken last year in Ottawa.
Absolutely nobody (except us!) likes owls. Alllll the other animals know exactly who they are. Even owls don’t usually like other owls. Owls only barely like the birds they mate for life with. 😅
Birds will fight with birds or other animals, but they usually avoid fighting do to being fairly delicate and so many injuries can impair their flight or vision, which would be a death sentence even if they win the fight. So the typical outcome is they just move on, and smaller birds have learned this, because they do it too.
This behavior is called mobbing, and is one of a few rare cases where different species will mob a predator together to ensure community safety. Crows will do it, I’ve seen my bluejays do it to a Coopers Hawk, and tiny sparrows will do it to owls, and so on. It’s actually a common way people will find owls during the day! They will listen to birds pitching a fit and follow the sound, and you will often find a raptor at the center of commotion. It’s like having the eyes of the whole area searching for it.
Owls will also attack other raptors (do check out this link!) along with birds and other prey animals at night. They will eat anything smaller than them oftentimes, and anything their size or larger is usually another predator that wants to take the owl’s limited food or shelter resources, so it’s just something they have to do. It’s part of their survival.
Iirc when I toured around western Europe, I was told that a 100 years ago or so, barn owls were hated enough that when they could catch one, they’ll nail it to their front door as it was thought it kept evil spirits away (what I understood). The reasoning or what I got was that due their shrieks, nighttime behavior and synanthropic traits made them a target.
Probably while also complaining about rats and whatnot.
Sadly people fear or hate what they don’t understand, and with owls being all mysterious creatures of the night that have given us jumpscares since the days we lived in trees, so people still do horrible things to owls today. It’s a shame, and I don’t share many of those stories here, but if it is something people are interested in, I certainly can share them with a content warning, but I assume most of you come here to see happy stuff.
Well I did have an immediate visceral reaction to it and I’m sorry if someone experienced the same.
That’s an interesting read, never knew such behaviour has a name! Should have thought others always knew they are the big bad birds. ;)
I am glad you enjoyed it!
All of us here would likely feel very differently about owls if we were rodent or songbird sized creatures!
Indeed! Glad to be not on their menu, so can safely enjoy their majesty.
There used to be owls 3-4 feet tall in Hawaii and Cuba!
Wahhh!