I heard a strange noise up in the sky this week. I was just having a cup of tea on my back deck when I saw two birds swooping above – a buzzard and a crow. I wasn’t sure who was chasing who! A rather odd couple having a squabble but I think the crow was unhappy with the buzzard! Just another day in the countryside…
Update:
Originally I just published one image here before I dashed out for the day on Sunday. I just liked the contrast (above) of the crow with its wings pulled in compared to the buzzard’s spread out as it soared. (And for my American readers I just wanted to add that buzzards are hawks here in the UK.)
I’m actually a fan of crows since learning how smart they are when I previously wrote about my kids meeting a crow in the Hamptons. When we also encountered a Great Horned owl, considered the king of birds of prey, a crow screeched in a tree nearby. The experts explained to us that crows hate these owls as they eat their young so the crow was warning others that their ultimate enemy was nearby.
I managed to get a couple other pictures of the buzzard and crow battle in the sky. Oh yes, and a passing plane too!
As far as I could tell neither won the competition. However I’m still unsure who was chasing who. According to one wildlife site, buzzards sometimes eat crows. Or was this crow protecting its young and hassling the buzzard?
nice shots kriss. relaly like the shot with the plane photo bombing!
Great shots. Never easy to follow the action and capture it.
We see quite a lot of raptors being chased by crows here too. It seems mostly the crows are attempting to chase off the raptors and the raptors are testing the crows ability to do so. They are fairly even matched so neither truly want to get into a fight so test each others abilities with their flying manoeuvres.
Lovely picture. Yes the crow will be mobbing the buzzard as it is too near its nest. At weekend I saw mum and dad blackbird mobbing a magpie that was too close. It’s great to see although I was panicking watching.
Wondeful shots, and what a gorgeous deep blue sky too.
an interesting observation and extrodinary photos
You got some good shots there! I like the last picture with the Buzzard’s wings spread out. Very cool. Angela x
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Angela from Daysinbed.com
Great shot. I’m always so impressed by the maneuvers of birds mid flight! To be a bird and fly, it’d be pretty great! #animaltales
Awww they look amazing! This is like superheroes fighting on air! #mysundayphoto
great picture, i think the crow hassles the buzzard while another crow attempts to steal eggs
Haha I love this, who came out on top
Thank you for linking up
Thanks Darren 🙂
Crows will hassle buzzards – we see a lot of these overhead battles as we have a lot of buzzards around the gite. 17 in the sky together is our record to date.
Wow – that must be amazing…and noisy!
It was and we assume there was a dead animal somewhere nearby. Thanks for expanding this post and adding it to #AnimalTales
Such a fantastic capture xx
Thank you – it was quite a display!