Finches vs. Owl

Now I’m not to smart when it comes to identifying all the different species of birds we have but I can identify them in their broad category…like I might not know what kind of owl it is, but I can tell that it’s some sort of owl.
I was out in the swamp yesterday and I saw a good sized owl getting pestered like there was no tomorrow by a bunch of little finches. The owl would light on a branch and about 2-dozen or so of the finches would start dive-bombing him. The owl would fly to another tree but the finches would follow. They would even attack him while he was flying. I got to watch this for about 10 minutes before they flew out of sight with them little finches following that big ole owl the whole time. Now I thought that an owl was in the upper end of the bird food chain and didn’t worry much about all these other little birds even when they was in gang formation. What do you reckon was going on? Think the owl maybe raided a nest (this time of year??) or maybe made off with a young bird and the family was coming to the rescue? Or is just “natural” for finches to go after owls? The owl never made an attempt that I saw to defend him self other than just flying to another tree. So who’s smart on birds and can tell me what was going on. Thanks…have a good one.

Just like crows will mob birds of prey year round a few other small birds will as well. Mocking birds are a great example. It's the same tactic they use when defending a nest in the spring but a nest is not always required. Without a better description it's hard to tell what the smaller birds were but based on your story, that's what it sounds like to me.

you can think about it like this--a large bomber in WW2 like a B17 could do a lot of damage but it could'nt turn,dive or climb very fast but a small fighter such as the german f-109 could buzz all around the larger bomber but they would make quick fast passes because of the amount of guns that the bomboer carried ---the smaller birds see the owl as a natural threat-- i have a couple of large red tail hawks that live around the house and they are always being attacked by something but i'v never seen them catch anything in the air

Thanks TF. I just googled "finch" and came across this picture that looks pretty much like the birds I'm talking about. The pic is of the female of the species...I didn't see any males. I can can easily accept the "nest" theory...that's kind of what I thought, but then again it's no telling how far they chased that owl. Would it be normal for finches to run them all the way into the next county? I'll google owls now.

This kind of "looks" like the owl I saw being chased. They call it a Short-eared owl.

Yep, do a google for "mobbing owl"; and you will get a bunch of appropriate responses.

Many naturalists know that when you hear of bunch of little birds all excited about something that chances are that you have a flock of birds mobbing a snake or an owl (or sometimes a hawk, cat, etc.).

The chances of any one of the smaller birds being preyed upon is pretty slim while they are mobbing, and if they can "convince" the predator to move on out of their feeding area, then they can go back to feeding safely without "worrying" about that particular predator.

Neat to see, ain't it?

Learn something new everyday.

rip18 said:

....Many naturalists know that when you hear of bunch of little birds all excited about something that chances are that you have a flock of birds mobbing a snake or an owl (or sometimes a hawk, cat, etc.)....

Click to expand...

Whenever I hear a bunch of birds going crazy in the woods, I always go have a look. But I am careful, because I never know if it's on the ground or in the trees

Almost always ends up being a Snake (rat snake or racer ) or an owl/hawk.

I have seen bluejay's yelling at deer .

Thomas, based on picture you`re showin`, it was probably a barred owl. Neat birds!

When im turkey hunting i allways pay attention to blue jays. They cant stand that white on the head of a gobbler.crows can help you track deer, something about that white belly.

Kinda-sorta along those same lines, during bow season I was setup in a hardwood bottom and had about 8 or 10 squirrels all around me. All at once they all started barking and raising all kinds of cane…about that time a hawk blasted though the leaf canopy after one of the squirrels. The hawk grabbed the squirrel and then kind of tumbled/flew all the way down to the ground. The hawk held on to it for a little bit then another hawk shows they both start to kind of picking at the squirrel. They did this for a minute or two then flew off toting the squirrel. I thought that was kind of neat in a couple respects…I thought that it was neat that the squirrels had their own kind of “emergency alert” and looked out after one another, and also thought it was neat to see a bird of prey in action. Not to mention he had a partner (date?) to share the kill with. Ain’t nature amazing?

birds have alarm calls too, finches to turkeys.

I heard the same thing happen many times in a deer stand. The last time, I was in the stand and all the squirrels let out alarm calls, and then everything went quite. 15 seconds later a grey fox came trotting through, silent. He stopped in front of my stand, lifted up his leg like a dog, took a ************, and kept trotting.

Its not just about shooting a deer sometimes, you experience so many things just sitting there being quite.

I saw something very similar or analagous to this event while I was deer hunting in a tree stand. A small, very young hawk flying along with what may be its much larger mother, was ambushed by a boat load of crows. The youngster hawk seemed to get trapped in trees while flying low while the mother hawk just flew higher and higher & got away. For over an hour, flocks of continuously squawking crows increasingly gathered more & more in the nearby trees to pester the youngster as the crow noise grew to unbearable intensities. Every time the youngster tried to fly away, the crows bunched together to force it down into a new tree trapping it. The mother hawk occasionally flew by very high as if to encourage the youngster to try to fly away, but the young small hawk seemed very timid & scared & could not get away from the annoying, calling crows despite the youngster's short unconfident flying attempts to get away, but be forced to land low in a new tree.