Mobbing

[Pieter Lotter]

This was taken in the Kruger National Park. Three Fork-tailed Drongos were harrassing a Martial Eagle for several minutes, eventually causing it to fly away from the area. From where I was, it appeared that, at times, the smaller birds were within inches of the eagle.

Canon 40D
Canon 100 - 400mm lens
ISO 400
1/3200
f/5.6

Comments welcome

Pieter

[Arthur Morris]

Nicely framed image of an interesting behavior but with the raptor turned away from us and the eye not visible at all this one does not work for me. Light well from the right does not help either. Exposure looks good but the side light makes things difficult....

[Dumay de Boulle]

Very interesting but common behavior from the FTD's, they do not like the presence of raptors at all... Arthur has put it perfectly so I have nothing to add.

[Randy Stout]

Pieter:

Good comments from Artie. Was this a big crop as well? IQ seems a bit soft.
I am always amazed that the larger birds put up with mobbing.

I was struck by the very end of the perch. It looks like a raptors foot/talons pointing up at the sky to me.

Cheers

[Daniel Cadieux]

Not much to add (and I agree with the previous comments), but nice timing with the dive-bomb mobbing behaviour.

[Pieter Lotter]

Arthur, Dumay, Randy and Daniel - I appreciate your comments.
Randy - yes it was a large crop. Most of the time the 3 drongos were "attacking" on a horizontal plane but this one unexpectedly turned and dived.
Pieter