Menaces of the sky: Here's why even eagles hate crows (VIDEO)
An aggressive encounter between a crow and an eagle near Port Moody, BC, was caught on video by a local photographer — and it’s raising questions about the dynamics between the legendary birds of prey and their arguably weaker nemesis.
Photographer Guilherme Carvalho captured a crow swooping and attacking an eagle in Belcarra recently.
Carvalho, who moved to Canada from Brazil nine years ago, saw a bald eagle on the television as a kid and confessed that he was very grateful to have filmed this moment.
“I was very happy as well as I got goosebumps all over, it was an incredible feeling,” he told Daily Hive.
Why do eagles put up with this? We talked to some experts to find out.
This behaviour is known as “mobbing” and is quite common among birds, explained Benjamin Freeman, an assistant professor of zoology at Georgia Tech University.
“Crows regularly will ‘mob’ predators such as eagles and hawks. Often several crows will do this mobbing behaviour together, swooping at their target and cawing loudly,” he said.
The eagle and crow mid-mobbing. (Guilherme Carvalho/ Submitted)
But crows are not the only ones to mob bigger birds of prey.
“Corvids (crows/ravens), Icterids (blackbird family), and even swallows and hummingbirds can be fierce mobbers,” said UBC Professor and Forest Renewal BC Chair in Conservation Peter Arcese.
According to University of Washington professor John M. Marzluff, this behaviour occurs for safety reasons.
“Eagles are predators on crows, so they mob eagles and push them out of their airspace for safety,” the wildlife science expert told Daily Hive.
“It seems to have the function of trying to get the potential predator to leave the area. There may also be social reasons why individual birds mob… to maintain or get social status,” Freeman said.
Guilherme Carvalho/Submitted
For mobbing species, no bird of prey is safe.
“Eagles are frequently mobbed, though not so [mercilessly] as are owls and smaller hawks, which are typically a more direct threat to the mobbing species,” Arcese said.
But Freeman says not to worry about eagles during mobbing. “They are massive predators and are in no danger. I imagine that the eagle is annoyed by the crow similar to how we humans get annoyed by mosquitos,” he said.
There are some other smaller birds who can turn the tables on crows as well.
“Smaller birds will often mob crows, as crows can be nest predators of smaller birds,” Freeman explained. This is because “crows will eat the eggs and babies of smaller birds.”
Have you had any cool animal encounters? Let us know in the comments.
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