Visible from my home office there is a 50' tall pine tree with a dead top... making for a perfect perch for hawks and other predators to scope out the valley below. Deep inside the tree there must be a hummingbird nest, as during a couple weeks of observation each time a large bird would land on top of the tree, they would get "buzzed" by hummingbirds. Quite a show! I never saw them actually make contact, but it did seem to irritate the offending hawk or falcon enough that they would move on. This only lasted 2-3 weeks, until I suspect that perhaps the baby hummingbirds had fledged the nest. The attached is technically not a very good shot, but you can clearly see a hummingbird "dive bombing" a Kestrel that had perched on the tree.
Has anyone witnessed this kind of behavior?
Last edited by Bill Bryant; 09-19-2008 at 11:33 AM.
About a month ago I had a Red Tail Hawk dive at the birds at my backyard birdfeeder. He did not catch anything but landed on a phone line in my yard. As I was watching him a hummingbird landed and perched no more than 2 feet from him. They sat there looking at each other for several seconds, maybe 30. The hummer then left and went his own way and the hawk then left also.
Some of the hummers around my home have been attacking any bird that lands in the trees that they perch in. Haven't seen a kestrel or raptor, but certainly crows and jays, which are not that easy to intimidate.
A great behavioral shot Bill. I saw the same behavior this week, a hummer buzzing a kestrel. While banding raptors in NJ I see many kinds of really cool sights.
Arthur Nelson
I sometimes note smaller birds mobbing larger, mostly predatory species in my neck of the woods. :) It appears to be quite normal for the little ones to be rather protective of their nest/offspring!
Hummingbird vs Falcon... Defending a nest?
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