Bird Food Bird Behaviour

In her Web Log a friend posted a story of a Great Horned Owl that was and is defending its territory from skiers. While an owl has never attacked me, I have seen owls defending its nest. However, in winter when there are no young to protect that behaviour may seem odd.

Yet the answer to this behaviour by this Owl actually lies in the observations I have been making regarding the way that the members of the crow family will attack and drive off raptors. Crows and their allies will attack raptors to defend their young, but will also do this to defend food sources. Here lies the answer to the behaviour of the Great Horned Owl too.

In winter when food is scarce, all animals will defend food sources. Crows and their allies bury food and it is the defence of these stores that causes the crows to try and repel raptors. Locally to me it is the Red Kites that are frequently harassed by the Crows. It has been the reintroduction of these birds here that has enabled me to observe the behaviour and piece together what is really happening. As I could understand crows defending their nests and young but it was the harassment of the Kites outside of the breeding season that lead me to research why this was happening. While I did find some studies that looked at this behaviour there was nothing conclusive in the literature. However the indications were strongly in favour of the corvid’s protecting food sources.

Further, the behaviour was strongly mirrored in the behaviour of other birds and mammals. Therefore I looked carefully over the past couple of years, to see if I could observe directly the reasons why the crows were trying to drive the Kites off. I have observed that frequently the crows would harass the kites at particular locations. However was this just that the Kites were in the same areas as the crows? Therefore II needed to see if there were occasions when the Kites were not harried even when they were in the same locations as the Crows. This I also observed, so it looked as though the crows were protecting sources or cashes of food.

The heavy snow this winter provided the perfect observation environment. As on three occasions I saw Kites harried by crows and their allies. Not only that, but I was able to observe the crows retrieving food from these stores of food, once the kites were away from the location. While three observations are not scientifically conclusive, it really does look as though it is protection of food sources is the reason behind the behaviour.

Going back to the observations in Maine of the behaviour of the Great Horned Owl, these birds will also protect food sources and, as I have just discovered, will store some food in winter. Therefore the behaviour of this owl is perfectly understandable.

While I fully understand how dangerous Owls can be, the famous bird photographer Eric Hoskins lost an eye while trying to photograph one. Therefore, I do not make light of the incidents where people that were attacked, but often it seems to be when people do not respect a wild animals territory and habitat that triggers an attack.

In another observation today I was cleaning the birdfeeders. This helps keep the food fresh and free from mould. I returned to the kitchen so I could dry and reassemble them and outside the window I saw ten or eleven sparrows that were lined up or perched looking for the food that they expected to be there. I dashed for the camera but they were gone when I got back. I hope they enjoy the mealworms that I added to make up for not leaving out their afternoon tea.