Re: The absurdity, the absurdity (was: Cooperating theropods?)

[Chris Campbell <sankarah@ou.edu>]

Matthew Troutman wrote:
> 
> >>anyway, some people on this list had to bend over backwards
> >>to find *any* hunting cooperation among birds.
> >
> >Maybe because folks on the list aren't ornithologists?  Possibly?
> >Maybe?  Grab a bird guy and see how tough it is to find the example
> >you're talking about.
> 
>      Many birds hunt cooperatively. The Harris hawk is the foremost
> example of this. The kea, a carnivorous parrot, congregates in massive
> mobs and surround weak or dying sheep and kill them. A few keas can even
> hunt, hawk-like, killing healthy sheep and in great mobs.

Thank you!  Looks like you didn't have to bend very far, too.  I hadn't
heard about keas; there's something disturbing about a carnivorous
parrot.  Kind of like a vampiric bunny or something.
 
> Though its not technically hunting, many small songbirds have been known
> to swarm hawks and crows. One group of this sort hit a kestral falcon so
> hard and that it got plunged into water and drowned while the birds
> pecked its eyes out ( sounds like _ The Birds _. ) I have seen an
> instance where a mob of blue jays cooperatively pecked at a juvenile
> Cooper's hawk. They were on a tree, disturbed at the hawks presense, and
> they would tempt the hawk to go one way after one bird so another bird
> had the chance to peck at the back of the hawk's head.

Does this happen much in non-corvids?  I see reference to it with crows
and jays and magpies and such and was just wondering if it was a corvid
thing or common among birds in general.

Chris