Snowy owl vs eagle

[Adkhunter1590]

There’s been this snowy owl seen flying around the property here at work hunting all the pigeons the last week. Yesterday the yard guy tells me he saw a bald eagle chasing down the snowy owl around all the grain bins. They disappeared from his sight for a bit until about an hour later he spots the snowy owl dead on the ground right outside the back door to the mill in a snow bank with blood all over the place. The eagle must of won the fight. What a pretty bird. Would make a cool mount. I rested him on top a barrel to take some pics quick.

 

[turkeyfeathers]

Gorgeous creature. Hope to someday see one in the wild. You may already know this but others may not. It is illegal to possess any bird of prey feathers. Believe if you have any native heritage it’s ok though.


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[nyantler]

Strange.. I found a Coopers Hawk dead on my front stoop last week. Didn't seem to be any fatal wound on the hawk. Maybe it tangled with another rapture.

[Pygmy]

Odd that the eagle would kill the owl and not eat it...Perhaps someone interrupted him before he got started on his meal..

[Robhuntandfish]

the owl might have had the meal and the eagle took it away .  

[ny hunter]

Both pretty birds.....too bad it has to end with 1 dead..,

[Adkhunter1590]

Odd that the eagle would kill the owl and not eat it...Perhaps someone interrupted him before he got started on his meal..

We have a lot of eagles and hawks here and it’s neat to see the battles that go down between them on a daily basis. I don’t know what they are fighting about, but they sure do a lot of it. There’s plenty of pigeons for them to all feast on, so it can’t be fighting over the lack of food, must be a territorial thing I would guess.

[Adkhunter1590]

Gorgeous creature. Hope to someday see one in the wild. You may already know this but others may not. It is illegal to possess any bird of prey feathers. Believe if you have any native heritage it’s ok though.


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Very pretty animal for sure. And ya I already knew I couldn’t keep it or anything, which really sucks because the mount would be awesome. Someone already called DEC and they are supposedly headed over to pick it up sometime today. Such a waste of a beautiful animal. There really should be some sort of permit you can get so you can mount birds like this that are found dead of natural causes. I’d even be more than happy to pay for it if I had to.

[Curmudgeon]

1 hour ago, nyantler said:

Strange.. I found a Coopers Hawk dead on my front stoop last week. Didn't seem to be any fatal wound on the hawk. Maybe it tangled with another rapture.

Dead Cooper's Hawks next to a house usually have hit a window. If you have bird feeders, they might be chasing birds around the house.

The whole thing is strange. I've seen hundreds of aggressive raptor interactions both inter and intra species. Some were very serious. Most were smaller raptors being aggressive to larger birds, harassing them, chasing them because they are a threat. Other aggression is just competition for resources or territories. These birds should not be completing very directly. Yes, the owl eats some of the same food - rabbits, ducks - but Bald Eagles are primarily scavengers in winter. Why it would put the energy into chasing and killing the owl is odd.

That said, I saw a Bald Eagle pair literally trying to kill a Golden Eagle in late winter. These were not a pair protecting a territory, because there is no nest nearby. The golden was small (probably a male). The female bald (much bigger than the other) was the primary aggressor. It was coming within inches of grabbing the golden with its talons. The golden was twisting and turning doing its best to avoid being grabbed. The male bald mostly followed along several feet behind the female. I watched this for several minutes until they went behind a hill.

[Jeremy K]

We have a hawk in the plant right now feeding on pigeons , he makes a mess of them after he grabs them and sits in the roof spitting out feathers and shitting every where. Eventually he'll die from not getting any water .

[Curmudgeon]

A Cooper's Hawk spent most of a winter inside the warehouse of Central Tractor some years back in Oneonta. It was eating the house sparrows. I think it got enough fluid from its diet.

[turkeyfeathers]

Brother while fishing the Madison river out west saw a peregrine repeatedly dive bombing a mature bald eagle. Said falcon almost drove eagle straight down into the river. One of the most spectacular sights he’s ever seen. 

[Fletch]

Beautiful owl. I have been lucky to see quite a few in the woods over the years.

 

A couple years ago I watched an osprey repeatedly dive bomb an eagles nest with a mature eagle with a couple small ones in it. They had nests maybe 150 yards apart.

[Doewhacker]

Pops located his first of the year today. 

Edited January 10, 2018 by Doewhacker
Added word

[NFA-ADK]

11 minutes ago, Doewhacker said:

Pops located his first of the year today. 

WOW awesome pic Doewhacker! 

[Buckmaster7600]

There is a pair of bald eagles with a nest near me and they have been ruining my crow hunts lately. After a few minutes of calling they'll start circling and bye bye crows!


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[Robhuntandfish]

Thought this fall I was about to be attacked by a bald eagle.  I was sitting on an island in the dacks and a heavy fog came in.  I was sitting in a foldout chair and waiting for the fog to lift and couldn't see 20 yards.  I was checking to are if I had any cell service and above me I hear ....whoosh.....whoosh and out of the fog is a bald eagle coming right at me . It was about 7 feet from me and was trying to stop mid air.  Couldn't believe it was so huge and I was just amazed. Then it went up and was gone and I thought did it see movement in the fog and swoop down?   Amazing encounter. My two buddies were like 20 yards to the other side of me and they were asking what was that noise, they never saw it.  

[nyantler]

22 hours ago, Curmudgeon said:

Dead Cooper's Hawks next to a house usually have hit a window. If you have bird feeders, they might be chasing birds around the house.

The whole thing is strange. I've seen hundreds of aggressive raptor interactions both inter and intra species. Some were very serious. Most were smaller raptors being aggressive to larger birds, harassing them, chasing them because they are a threat. Other aggression is just competition for resources or territories. These birds should not be completing very directly. Yes, the owl eats some of the same food - rabbits, ducks - but Bald Eagles are primarily scavengers in winter. Why it would put the energy into chasing and killing the owl is odd.

That said, I saw a Bald Eagle pair literally trying to kill a Golden Eagle in late winter. These were not a pair protecting a territory, because there is no nest nearby. The golden was small (probably a male). The female bald (much bigger than the other) was the primary aggressor. It was coming within inches of grabbing the golden with its talons. The golden was twisting and turning doing its best to avoid being grabbed. The male bald mostly followed along several feet behind the female. I watched this for several minutes until they went behind a hill.

There is no window where I found it... there was a small wound on it's belly, but it looked superficial at best. I could see in the snow where the hawk had landed, hopped about four feet to the sidewalk and died. Temps were sub-zero that evening and morning so it was frozen when I found it. 

[Curmudgeon]

2 hours ago, nyantler said:

There is no window where I found it... there was a small wound on it's belly, but it looked superficial at best. I could see in the snow where the hawk had landed, hopped about four feet to the sidewalk and died. Temps were sub-zero that evening and morning so it was frozen when I found it. 

Curious. A paper I read years ago said the leading cause of death of Cooper's Hawks was eye injuries which ultimately led to starvation. Acciptiers are bushwackers. They come blasting through heavy cover to take prey. Eye injuries are a consequence. Having only one working eye is fatal.

There is high raptor mortality among juveniles because they take time to perfect their hunting skills. They also starve. Sub-zero cold could accelerate the process in either case.