It isn’t every day that I get to photograph an aerial attack by a raven on a Golden Eagle.
In this instance I use the word “photograph” advisedly – for a variety of reasons these images are of mediocre quality and some of them aren’t particularly sharp so I had to process some of them to within an inch of their lives to get them as presentable as they are. But I enjoy seeing behaviors like this even when the photos are technically lacking. I hope you agree.
Four days ago I was watching this Golden Eagle on Antelope Island through my lens as it was perched far away at the top of a large hill when it unexpectedly took off directly toward me. A Common Raven had been perched nearby in obvious disapproval of the presence of the eagle but I thought the corvid had remained behind when the eagle launched. It hadn’t. I had already taken 13 shots of the eagle in flight when I first spotted the raven fast approaching the eagle from behind through my lens. Needless to say I quickly fired off a long burst and hoped for some interesting interaction.
At this point the eagle seems to be unaware of the approaching raven. If I remember my old World War II movies correctly, this is the classic approach position of one fighter aircraft on another to best prevent detection.
But the eagle is certainly aware of the raven now. The raven was very close to the eagle before it banked to its right…
and squawked its displeasure…
as it veered away and continued to…
vocalize as it did so.
This action occurred very quickly – based on the burst rate of my Canon 7D Mark II I’d estimate it only took about half a second.
Ravens and Golden Eagles have an interesting relationship. Ravens will feed on carcasses killed by Golden Eagles and in studies they appear at half of all rabbits killed by them. In most situations ravens are extremely aggressive toward Goldens, except at food, and eagles are known to prey on raven fledglings in the nest. More often than not when I see a Golden Eagle there are ravens nearby keeping an eye on them, apparently as both a potential source of food and a possible threat.
A complex relationship to be sure.
Ron
Ravens are some of the most skilled aerial acrobats in the animal kingdom. They are constantly practicing barrel rolls, Immelmen turns, and close quarter evasive maneuvers through tree branches and through groups of their friends. I am pretty sure they feel very confident in being able to outfly all others much less a big lumbering eagle.
Hard to tell from the pictures but you may have had a better sense through the viewfinder and being there. How close do you think the raven got to the eagle before it veered off? 2′, 10′ ???
Art, based on the depth of field I get with the 500mm with attached teleconverter and the relative sharpness of both birds I’d say that the raven wasn’t further than a foot from the eagle in the third image.
A very complex relationship. And I love the way that the ravens refuse to be cowed, or to bow down to the eagles greater strength and weaponry.
The ravens do take chances, EC. I wonder if they occasionally get “picked off”…
Hi Ron, Great images of a behavior I observe frequently – sometimes it looks like harassment, and at others it looks like play, with the Ravens appearing to be “counting coup”. For another, darker twist on the Golden Eagle & Raven relationship, please read Chapter 32 in Pete Dunne’s great book, “The Wind Masters”. I first read it almost 20 years ago, and re-read it annually. Sadly, it remains topical…
Cheers,
Dick
“Counting coup” is a great way to put it, Dick – I love it. Now you’ve got me curious about that chapter…
We have a Cooper’s hawk pair in our neighborhood along with roosting sites for the crows here in Ann Arbor. The crows pick off robin nestlings on a routine basis. I notice when the Cooper’s have a nest, the female almost never leaves and I see her actively watching the crows in the neighboring trees. The crows also attack the male Cooper’s quite a lot. He’s seems smaller than the crows. Great pictures as always.
Sounds like you have an interesting neighborhood, April. Thank you.
Amazing shots, Ron! Love the look on their faces close-up, which one never sees from the ground. The whole corvid/raptor relationship fascinates and confuses me. I’ll never understand why the Red-tails (let alone Goldens or Balds) don’t just turn on their harassers and give them a good … Bite? Shake? Not sure what I’d expect, but I’m always perplexed when it looks as if the Ravens or Crows have won the aerial skirmish by chasing their “foes” off! I guess the raptors are saving their energy for more important activities. Thanks for another great story!
Chris, I’ve always assumed it’s a matter of reaction time. Larger birds are just quicker than smaller ones and are confident in their ability to evade/avoid the larger ones. Don’t know for sure, though…
I sure do learn a lot from you. Thanks for your insights and beautiful pictures every morning.
Nice of you to say so, Karen. Thank you.
Fascinating. My stepdad flew in the Berlin Airlift. He used to tell stories about some of the dogfights (he wasn’t in them but he heard about them).
And I’ll bet they’re interesting stories, for sure, Arwen. Thanks.
Wonderful action sequence Ron!
Thank you, John.
Very interesting images.
Did you take them with the new 100-400mm or the 500mm?
If you don’t mind sharing I wouldn’t mind knowing some of those variety of reasons you have mentioned because I was able to photograph a similar behavior between an Osprey and a Faucet (I believe this is the word you use for it) and I made a lot of mistakes.
Thank you.
Jorge, these were taken with the 500mm mostly at about 1/4000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1000.
The major problem I had here was exposure/light. The birds were flying into the sun so the leading edges of the eagle’s wings were quite bright but I also had to deal with the blacks of the raven which showed almost no detail prior to extensive processing.
Also, If I’d known I was going to have to deal with two birds my settings would have been different to get more depth of field. I really didn’t need to use ISO 1000 here.
And I lost focus on the eagle several times, partly because with the bird coming almost straight at me it didn’t present much of a target for my focus points and it was jigging around a little in response to the raven.
My settings were 1/1250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 220 and the problem was with the speed and the focus distance (only 420mm).
Thank you very much for letting me know.
Wow! Beautiful photos.
Thanks very much, Bill.
Wow! how lucky for you to get these great shots!
I’m not sure how great they are, Tana but it sure was fun to see and document. Thank you.