Unwelcome Passenger
From Ronald Kotinsky
Look again. The mockingbird is standing on the barred owl.
Not chasing it. Not diving at it. Riding it.
This is mobbing, and it is how small birds handle a predator they could never fight. They harass it in the open, loudly, until it leaves. Damage is not the goal. Exposure is. An owl that has been found cannot ambush anything, and the whole neighborhood now knows where it is.
Northern Mockingbirds take it further than anyone. They mob hawks, crows, cats, dogs and people, and they do not appear to run the numbers first.
Then look at the owl face. Nothing. Not a flinch. A Barred Owl outweighs a mockingbird by roughly fifteen times, and the expression says exactly that.
March 2023. Canon R5, Sigma 500mm f/4, 1/1600, ISO 1250, with a stop of exposure compensation dialed in, because a dark bird against a bright sky will fool any meter you own.
Valrico - Florida
14 replies
Hit the brakes he'll fly right by.
we had a specific mockingbird that would meow to lure out cats then dive bomb and peck their butts. i loved that bird
And some people still don't think animals have distinct personalities... 😄
"Bro, I'm so done with your shit" the owl to the mockingbird, probably
It doesn't look like the most pleasant way to be woken up! 😖
But it is an alarm that works, which is a win in my book :D
I like the photos where they're trying their absolute best to ignore them!
There was a Carolina Wren nest on my patio last year, and a Red-bellied Woodpecker was there trying to get some food at the feeder, and Mr Wren was trying his darndest to chase it off by bombing its head over and over. Each time, the woodpecker would look around like "did someone just touch me?"
The wren would return to the one tall plant and glare at him, and I swear I could detect him getting angrier as the woodpecker would not respect his best assaults.
One of the best bird encounters I've had.
That sounds hilarious! :D
“Onward, steed!”
Mockingbirds are the jerkiest.
One can only expect so much from dinosaurs. 😜
Haha yeah. I know they have a reason for doing the things they do but no other birds have ever terrorized myself and my dog, but those guys did that so many times!
aren't they the best? we had one that started mimicking my brother's alarm clock (because we shared a room and slept with the window open a lot) and it would NOT let him sleep in on weekends.