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Comment by rantwasp | Hacker News Reader

i got to witness a murder of crow harassing 2 bald eagles until the eagles just gave up and left. we’re not even talking a lot. There were maybe 6-7 crows.

The theory I heard is the bald eagle(s) could easily take them on but they risk injury and the crows will try to mess them up. So the eagles just don’t risk it and move on + hunt things that don’t fight back (like rabbits).

also, I can swear that crows taunt my dog who does not like them and will bark/try to catch them. it’s like watching a comedy show with the crows doing something to provoke the dog and literally “laughing” afterwards.

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The phenomenon of multiple prey animals swarming larger predators to drive them off is known as mobbing.[0] Crows seem to do it quite readily. Very cool that you got to see it!

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobbing_(animal_behavior)

I got to watch it in detail recently at our apartments. Starlings mobbed a hawk and drove it away several times...

Almost everyday a barn owl is being mobbed by crows. This owl then sits on our bathroom window because it feels safe there. I want to teach these crows lesson for their lifetime

Around here (BC, Canada) you'll see a single crow chasing away a bald eagle. They get very aggressive when they're protecting their nests.

A single crow chased me off recently by swooping at my head repeatedly. I was just walking down a sidewalk in Vancouver, minding my own business.

It must have had a nest in the tree above the sidewalk.

The strangest part of this to me is that I've never once had this happen in the Willingdon Park office park near Brentwood in Burnaby. It is absolutely covered with crows overnight, at all times of the year.[1]

But the one time I walked down the wrong sidewalk in Point Grey (so Vancouver 'proper') during springtime, the back of my head gets smacked.

[1] Perhaps the Burnaby/Willingdon crows consider the absurd amounts of crow shit on cars, sidewalks, buildings, etc. to be adequate warning? The stench after a rain is... eugh.

I've had this happen a lot by gulls. Every spring they nest at various rooftops, and anyone walking within 50 yards of the house gets swooped repeatedly.

It's definitely my least favorite bird.

I’m south of you in Oregon, and I’ve seen a single crow chase away a red tailed Hawk. It’s definitely a strange sight.

The eagles are somewhat less maneuverable- crows are very nimble flyers. I just saw a crow on my walk today land backwards in the wind. They can avoid the claws and beak... Sort of like a monkey harassing a tiger. They'll actually pull feathers off the eagle. Every now and then the eagles pull some crazy moves though to get away, they'll tilt sideways and fall. It's like a move you might see in fighter jet dogfights.

Around here harriers also get harassed by the crows.

At first I read it like the crows in your area are harassing Harrier jump jets.

That’s how I read it at first. I was like: wow, this crow stories are getting out of hand

lol. the eagle is something like: whatever man, I don't need this shift :)

If crows did that to my dog, I would shoot them. ... With a super soaker. I imagine it to be quite hilarious to teach these birds a lesson ;).

I let my dog work on his own problems. More seriously, those feathered devils will remember it and you’ll going to be next when it comes to harassment.

On a daily basis, I see mockingbirds chasing off crows. Sometimes they come out of a tree, so I assume those scenarios usually involve crows messing with nests. Other times mockingbirds will chase off crows as they're apparently passing through. Never seen a crow fight back, and they fly away (sometimes not far) as if they're saying, Alright, alright, I'm going. Typically, it's just a single mockingbird, so it's not as though the crow is being overwhelmed, but, like the eagle in your example, it's probably just not worth the energy/potential injury.

We have a lot of blue jays, too, and even though they're notoriously territorial, I can't remember seeing a blue jay/crow altercation. Maybe their reputation precedes them? I don't have any real guesses.

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