Reader jj sent a video of an owl and a hawk fighting for a nest. The owl eventually won. jj’s notes:
Perhaps others have sent these links; in case not, here’s a link to a cool video showing a pair of Great Horned Owls displacing Red-tailed Hawks from their nest. At the end of the time-lapse video, in which one or another of the pair of hawks makes several passes at one or another of the owls, the hawks seems to have won; but not, because now in the newly renamed “Raptor Cam”, there are owl eggs in the nest and a mother owl brooding them.
The live raptor cam. Owl won! It’s raining now, and the owl is complaining now. But she owns the nest:
RaptorCam notes:
Last year, we all watched live as a pair of Presidio Red-tailed Hawks successfully reared two chicks and the two chicks fledged the nest. This year we have an unexpected plot twist: a pair of Great Horned Owls have been seen visiting the hawks’ nest and look as though they intend to take up residence there.
This is not uncommon – this reflects the interdependence of species and the way animals in the wild often rely on each other for survival. In this case, Great Horned Owls don’t build their own nests; rather, they take over the nests of other raptors. Over the last few weeks, these owls have stopped by at night to inspect the Red-tailed Hawks’ nest while during the day the hawks, unaware of the nightly owl visits, continued to prep the nest for the season. Recently, there was a brief confrontation between the owls and the hawks where it appeared the hawks maintained the nest, but then during the early hours of February 5, the owls laid an egg in the nest, and on February 9, they laid a second egg. The incubation period for these eggs is about 30-37 days, so we should expect the eggs to hatch around the first week of March. Also, the hawks have back-up nests in the park and our wildlife ecologists are monitoring these nests to find out where they end up nesting.
Stay tuned to watch as the drama between the owls and the hawks continues to unfold.
Very interesting.
My own knowledge of owl/hawk relationships is limited to what I saw a few years ago when a nest of Coopers Hawks was located across the street from our home. An ornithologist arrived to band the chicks and take blood samples from the parents. This, of course, requires that the parents be caught. The capture was managed with the help of a great horned owl which was a rescue bird blinded in at least one eye. The owl was positioned behind a large, fine, net in which the Cooper’s parents were caught when they tried to chase the owl away. Apparently owls are major predators of Cooper’s.
Very interesting. I had thought most owls nested in tree holes, but I guess not. We have several of each of these species locally and I’ll try figure out what the nesting situation is. Based on this report, I might see some serious disputes.
At about 32 seconds into the video, immediately after the owl has prevented the hawk from claiming the nest, the owl hoots and then makes clacking noises intermittently until about 48 secs. You can see the bill moving. I’d never heard this sound from owls before. Here is a paper describing and explaining all the sounds that Great Horned Owls owls make, including the clack. https://www.internationalowlcenter.org/uploads/1/0/3/1/103197186/great_horned_owl__bubo_virgianus__vocalizations_and_associated_behaviours.pdf
Great Horned Owls have quite a reputation for ferocity, plus they’re very large owls with formidable weaponry. The redtails would have been serious underdogs in this fight, I think. Or perhaps I should say underbirds?
I live along a creek in the middle of a smallish city. There are plenty of ducks, sparrows, robins, flickers and crows in this neighbourhood. Can get pretty noisy some mornings in spring. ANYHOW, the odd time that we are aware of owls trying to move into the huge old coniferous trees along the creek the crows call in the troupes. Then they harass the poor owl till it gives up and leaves.
Oh my, why can’t we all just get along.
What’s the matter with birds who cannot build their own homes? I didn’t know about these owls, but I often wonder why storks rely so much on man-made structures to nest.
Building a nest takes time an energy away from other reproductive activities. Why build what you can easily pilfer?