The act of mobbing a predator is a behavior that is common to many species and found in many families of animals. I regularly watch impala in the open walking slowly after a lioness or zebra following and then chasing wildogs. The theory says, "if you let a predator know it has been seen, it won't try hunt you!". There secondary purpose of this behavior (accompanied by a lot of alarm calls) is to notify others of your kind that a predator is around. As a birder you will be rewarded if you learn the alarm calls of the birds in your area and even mimic them to call-in birds.
Yesterday I heard the familiar alarm call of the African paradise fly-catcher in my garden and raced off to see what he had spotted. To my delight, in the perfect light, was a Lizard buzzard being dive-bombed by a pair of flycatchers.
 |
| The male Paradise fly-catcher mobbing the Lizard Buzzard |
 |
| Then the female! |
No comments:
Post a Comment