Dave, The feeder birds did not seem disturbed at all by the hawk, not when it first swooped down prior to the catch nor after it took the junco. Wouldn't the Sharpie pose at least an initial threat to all? My first impression was that In the middle of a snowstorm, the energetic benefits of obtaining food might outweighs the benefits of fleeing. Do you think that's the issue?
*Candace Cornell* Stuck Inside Birder On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 6:46 PM, Dave Nutter <nutter.d...@me.com> wrote: > A hawk which is eating is a hawk which is not hunting. > For that matter, a hawk which is in plain view is not a > hawk which is making a high-speed surprise attack. > That hawk did not represent any threat to the survivors. > Perhaps in summer, when there are slow, naive, closely- > related fledglings to protect, it would make sense to > make a fuss and warn the young birds that a hawk is > dangerous, or to try to oust it if it were still hungry. But > in winter, with young dispersed (or already eaten), > and a hawk occupied for now and not to be hungry > for some time to come, and cold weather to endure, > it makes sense that eating is the higher priority. > --Dave Nutter > armchair ethologist > > On Jan 12, 2011, at 12:50 PM, Candace Cornell <cec...@gmail.com> wrote: > > While reading just now, a flash of wings outside our glass > doors stole my attention. In the midst of the blowing snow, a Sharp-shined > Hawk swooped down on a junco that was alone on the snow between two backyard > feeders. After securing the bird in its talons, the hawk flew off with > it. To my surprise, the chickadees, juncos, nuthatch, and woodpeckers > (Red-bellied and Downy) kept working at the feeders, and three other juncos > remained nearby on the > shrubbery, carrying on with their activities as if they had not noticed the > predation. > > Why didn't they get scared off by the hawk? > > Someone else recently posted seeing a flock of redpolls in their tree with > a sharpie eating a flock-mate directly below Why didn't the hawk's > presence cause them to fly off? > > Any ideas? > > Candace > > > -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
