Harassment seemed to be the word of the day as a Mule Deer carcass nearby was drawing plenty of attention from the avian clean-up crew and this day the Black-billed Magpies seemed to be controlling the party. While this Bald eagle was perched in a tree nearby an endless stream of Black-billed Magpies seemed to take turns Harassing the Eagle.
Working singly and then in pairs some would just keep watch while others flew in and pecked the Bald Eagle from Behind.
We watched this happen for a good half an hour before the Eagle flew off to a nearby spruce tree for some solitude a group of Ravens flew in to shoo the eagle away.
It’s always amazing to watch the tenacity in which smaller birds defend a meal or territory against birds much bigger.
Wonderful captures.
Thanks Cindy and wishing you a wonderful week.
The beauty of nature – small creatures don’t know their size.
HI and we agree with that.
Beautiful photos!
Thanks and wishing you a wonderful week.
Excellent captures of the action! The tree in the first three images seems kind of spindly to hold up an Eagle—always so interesting to watch birds interacting.
Hi Ellen, we also like getting to see a bit of behavior when birds interact. Lately we have enjoyed watching the differences between behavior in Mountain versus Black-capped Chickadees taking turns on the bird feeders in your yard. Fun, educational and entertaining. A nice distraction from the news of the day.
That sounds like fun to me, and a good distraction!
And we all need a distraction these days.
🙃
Great photos 🙂 love the bravery of smaller birds who never seem to get hurt by the bigger bird
Hi, we agree. It is so much fun to watch smaller birds chase away bigger birds and like you point out they always seem so fearless.