Crow Vs. Hawk: Dogfight

We have been watching some amazing aerial acrobatics the past few days.  The crows and the hawks have been going at each other like 12 year olds in a middle school playground.  Why can't they just get along?  I was able to get a few photos of the action, but it wasn't easy. Their maneuvers occur at light speed.  We have seen them fly upside-down with talons extended, swoop low under trees or between houses, dive with wings retracted, and twist and turn better than Snoopy and the Red Baron. They've even swooped down just above our car as we drove down the hill where the battle began. We have seen several crows gang up on one hawk and have seen a second hawk join in to a fight to help his wingman.

A few weeks ago we wrote that the new red-shouldered hawks and the crows were getting along nicely, but as you can see from these pictures, the honeymoon is over.  It seems to be a fair fight when these two go at it, but I notice one of the red-shouldered seems to be missing a couple of wing and tail feathers, and the crows seem to have all of theirs, so perhaps the crows have a bit of an advantage.

With the red-tails, it is a different story.  The crows have an edge in maneuvering if not in soaring to higher altitudes.  I don't have any pictures of the red tails here because they turn their red tails and run as soon as the fight starts.  I have seen them fight back a few times, and I pity the fool crow who gets a taste of their talons. But so far the crows seem to be much more nimble in flight and can avoid any counter attack.

New Hawks in Town

We have some new neighbors. A trio of red-shouldered hawks (buteo lineatus) showed up about two weeks ago.  They have been hanging around ever since with a big noisy presence that is hard to ignore, not that we would want to. The Cornell website "All About Birds" says these hawks are one of the most vocal hawk varieties in the United States, and we can attest to that.

These critters screech loudly and often during the day. It's a wonder they catch anything to eat since every gopher, pigeon and snake in the county must be able to hear them.

They ride the updrafts on the hillside, and then swoop and play with each other.  Later they will land in a nearby Monterey pine and screech at each other some more.  This behavior closely resembles a mating ritual called a "Sky Dance" as described by Kari Kirschbaum of The University of Michigan .   It is strange that there are three of them, perhaps a oiseau "menage a trois"? 


The ravens here will chase after every red-tail hawk that comes by, but they have been leaving these red-shouldereds alone, even though they are a smaller bird by a good five inches in length and about 10 inches in wingspan.  We're not sure if the ravens do not consider them a threat, or if the red-shouldereds are more agile and not so easy to pick on without getting picked at back.


Red-shouldered hawks, red-tail hawks and other Buteo's are called buzzards in Europe.  Here in the USA we think of a 'buzzard' as a another name for a turkey vulture, but this is not correct.  It seems that early settlers, in colonial times, mistakenly called our soaring vultures 'buzzards', and the name has stuck.  I got this factoid from the Turkey Vulture Society web page.  No kidding, there is a Turkey Vulture Society!

We hope they are building a nest nearby, but we have not seen it.  We'll be watching with binoculars in hand.