Re: cooperative hunting

["Matthew Troutman" <m_troutman@hotmail.com>]

>In several posts about cooperative hunting the questions came up about 
this
>behavior in birds. One species in which it is very well documented is
>Harris' Hawk (Parabuteo unicinctus). It lives in open savanna and
>semi-desert. The groups are very likely related, fmaily members.


 Parabuteo is a great example of cooperative hunting. Though this is not 
hunting, some passerines have been known to swarm hawks during their 
nesting season. They attack usually when the hawk has just fed ( they 
can tell that ). One report of this mobbing on a kestrel    ( Falco 
sparverius ) finally resulted in the kestrel being forced into water and 
drowned. 

I witnessed one these mobbing instances when I was hiking at a prarie 
savannah. I spotted an semi-adult cooper's hawk on a tree limb. I 
huddled into the grass and saw a group of blue jays, unhappy that the 
hawk had taken their tree limb, cawwing at the hawk very agititatedly. 
They did a sort of "dance" where one jay would tempt the hawk and 
another would go from behind and peck at it. When it would turn around 
the dance was repeated. This went on for a half hour. Each mintue the 
jays would get more and more brave. It was amazing. Finally the jays 
quit, and the hawk, satisfied that it hold its ground flew off. 

MattTroutman

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