Similar to Diane’s experience, I was at a wildlife refuge this morning and saw a couple of Sandhill Cranes some distance across the field. I took a few images at 600 mm and they were quite small in the frame, so I added the 1.4 TC. I was photographing them when all of a sudden this female Harrier came out of nowhere. I thought she’d just buzzed the cranes until I looked at this on the computer screen. Image quality is not good, but I thought it was a very cool behavior shot. I’m adding a really tight crop so you can see that it actually grabbed the crane’s beak.
Sony a6500 FE200-600 @ 600 with 1.4 TC (1260 mm equivalent with 1.5 crop factor). Beanbag on car window. Cropped from a horizontal to 2491X3114. Taken today at 10:53 am.
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I wouldn’t think so directly. Possibly during nesting season? Even purported herbivores (they aren’t) seem to like eggs and harriers and cranes are both wetland birds.
Sheez! That is really aggressive behavior. I wonder if it is more territorial than anything? Female Harriers around here seem to occupy a space and have a limited tolerance for other harriers and short-eared owls. I have never seen a harrier pester a GB Heron and they both are after the same prey, voles.
Good catch Dennis. Amazing to see the harrier actually clamp onto the crane beak.
I am curious if it was a one of interaction and then the birds carried on with their day?
Hi @David_Leroy It was just one-off. The crane went back to foraging and the Harrier flew in my direction. I haven’t figured out the motivation yet. It’s possible that the Crane disturbed a vole and the harrier grabbed the wrong moving thing. I’m not sure how good Harrier close vision is, but if they mostly work on what’s moving it’s a possible mistake.
@terryb, @Allen_Brooks, @Lyle_Gruby, @Diane_Miller, @David_Leroy, @peter Just thought I’d let you folks know that I went back and looked at the timing on the images around this one. The immediately previous image was taken 1 second before this one and both cranes in the frame were erect and looking in the direction that the Harrier came from. So my theory of disturbing a vole is definitely not valid and I have no idea what that crazy Harrier was doing.