Over-ambitious Harrier

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.


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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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Incredible!! Would a Crane be a threat to a Harrier?

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?

Incredible behavioral action shot, Dennis! I’m really curious at what prompted this attack by the harrier. Congrats on being there and capturing it!

Hi Dennis
The interaction between the Harriet and the Sandhill Cranes is amazing. Nice work.
Peter

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.

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The crane seems to have a rather affronted look. Neat action shot. Pretty good detail in the enlarged view.

Whoa!! That’s wild. It’s like what hawks do to great horned owls when they see them.

@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.

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