ECOVIEWS: Why Do Hawks Let Crows Attack? - Post And Courier

Another question is, what would a pair of hawks with a couple of babies in a nest do if harassed by crows? One ornithologist said, "I have never seen crows approach when young were present. Birds of prey will fiercely protect their nests." Most agreed that crows become much more cautious when hawks have eggs or young. In that context the crows would be viewed as a potential threat to the hawks’ reproductive success. The crows would no longer be merely pests. All the ornithologists I spoke with agreed that if a red-tailed hawk reached out and grabbed an offending crow with its talons, that would be the end of the crow. As one put it in nonscientific but easy-to-understand terms, "The crow would be toast."

One colleague who worked with bald eagles noted, "None of our staff has ever seen crows or raccoons be predators on an eagle nest with eggs or young in it." Another said, "I don't know for sure, but when there's a nest involved, the stakes are higher, and the raptor would probably fight back.” The fact that such attacks on raptor nests seldom occur may be because crows already know the answer about the consequences of entering an eagle’s no-fly zone. However, exceptions undoubtedly occur and sometimes the big predator’s eggs or offspring become the smaller predator’s prey.

Observations of the nonchalant manner in which hawks respond when crows engage in mobbing behavior are frequent. The outcome of any particular encounter is problematic, and variations to all the general rules about animal interactions are rampant. One thought, which has no scientific merit but is fun to consider, what if we are looking at the wrong side of the equation. Maybe hawks get bored and amuse themselves by sitting in trees just to annoy the crows.