question re bird behavior

[orleans]

the other day i was sitting at a stoplight and saw a hawk flying across the road and swoop around back to a phone or electric perch -- like in this picture. it sat there for several moments when a smaller bird flew over and sat on the wire near the hawk. then a second little bird flew over and sat on the wire. the light changed and i wasn't able to stick around to see what happened next.

but i couldn't figure out why they (the small birds) did that.

i know smaller birds will gang up on the hawk and try to run it out of their territory -- but two birds just seemed like literal sitting targets.

i know hawks will eat smaller birds-- i was walking my dog one day, saw a robin on the parkway and a hawk swooped down in front of us, nabbed the robin and was gone! another hawk decided to eat a bird on my front porch--and i didn't appreciate the mess and feathers. ew.

anyway--any theories as to what those two small birds thought they were doing as they flew over to that wire in order to sit near the hawk?

[Phoenix61]

1. Mocking birds are very territorial and have no

problem going after larger birds. As long as they are above or behind the hawk they are safe.

[Quakerfriend]

2. I'm not sure but, I know that certain birds

are more likely to do the mobbing than others.
House sparrows, crows and blue jays will often mob birds of pray.

[dweller]

3. The 2 small birds were enough

to get hawk moving away from their territory where other birds could have joined in to continue pursuit away from theirs … they all just want him gone


✌🏻

[EYESORE 9001]

4. Could they have been juvenile hawks?

Depending on species, they may not bear a strong resemblance to their parents.

[2naSalit]

6. Not of the same species.

Young raptors and for most bird species that fly, the young are 9/10 their adult size by the time they leave the nest, age only discernible by plumage. They grow amazingly fast, a bald eaglet takes ten weeks from hatching to fledgling.

[2naSalit]

5. I can think of two possible things...

Since you only saw a few seconds of the event, they may all be needing a rest and they all stopped there for the purpose after having engaging in a chase for a while prior. I have seen that on a windy day but not a regular thing. If the smaller species was attacking the hawk, it may have made an attempt on their nest or got too close.

The other thought is that they did not see that hawk as an immediate threat, maybe it was full and they knew it.

Some mammals will be wary of a predator in their midst until it makes a kill, after that, they go back to what they were doing after a few moments of recognition of the loss. When it comes to birds, some ornithologists will run this quote by you, "Mate for life, mourn for a minute." It's how species survive, but I digress.

Birds are interesting and I find it takes several minutes of observation to figure out what they're doing sometimes.