A Different Way to Get a Meal

[Paul Lagasi]

Never saw an Owl harassing another bird for a meal before, this juvenile Snowy figured out how..in the 10th frame you can see the vole falling from harriers grasp..sorry for quality...taken from great distance

[Rick Baumhauer]

Paul - very cool sequence! Certainly not something I've seen before - hope the skill serves this juvie well when it heads back north.

Rick

[John Chardine]

This is a very interesting observation Paul. In fact I did a quick search and could not find an example of this behaviour in owls. The act of stealing food has a name in animal behaviour- KLEPTOPARASITISM. It's a mouthful but is conveys the two main ideas- that something is being stolen (klepto) and that an individual is gaining some benefit from the misfortune of another in a two-way relationship or interaction (parasitism). Examples of classic kleptoparasites are the jaegers/skuas and frigatebirds but it is seen in many other groups in one form or another. When I studied Ring-billed Gulls in a breeding colony I noticed that it was very common for a parent to have its food stolen from it by another Ring-bill before it had a chance to feed its chicks. Recently I saw a report of kleptoparasitism by albatrosses!

I'll do a bit more research on it but I think we have the makings of the first BPN bird paper to be published. I'm serious. I'll be back!

Anyone seen this before in owls?

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Very interesting series and behavior. If I remember correctly, someone observed a snowy owl on Long Island stealing the prey (I think a gull) from a peregrine falcon.

[George Scott]

Great pics - last year I observed short-eared owls harrassing harriers to drop prey at Skagit, WA. No pics though, but it was frequent enough to make me think it was somewhat common - I need to go back!!