I heard a commotion of cawing crows in our neighbor's yard one morning. I looked out and saw several Crows taunting a Red-tailed Hawk sitting in dead tree. It was interesting that other birds heard the distress calls of the crows and joined in on the action! This photo shows the crow and 10 Starlings. Two Cardinals had been in the tree a few minutes earlier. Once when a co-worker had a Barred Owl sitting on a perch at science camp we started hearing the distress call of a robin, within minutes there were numerous different species of birds in the trees nearby adding their support!
I witnessed this aerial assault while a taking photos at the Oak Ridge Marina at Melton Hill Lake. It is amazing how smaller birds will often harass larger birds in flight (sometimes crows are the "harasees")! The hawk could have easily made a quick meal out of the crow if it had caught it!
