Twelve days ago at a local city park I witnessed and documented some bird behavior that was completely new to me – a large flock of Black-billed Magpies playing with the resident pair of American Kestrels. I was quite surprised to see magpies playing with kestrels and even more surprised to see that the kestrels were obviously joining in the fun and “playing” right back.
I posted one of those photos the next day with the promise that I’d post more of them soon. But “soon” became stretched out to twelve days for a couple of reasons, but largely because both Photoshop and Adobe Elements (I use Elements as my photo organizer) stopped working for me. Neither one would even try to load. It turns out that you need Adobe’s Creative Cloud to run both Photoshop and Elements and unbeknownst to me, my copy of Creative Cloud had become corrupted, so nothing from Adobe worked. It took me a while to figure all of that out and repair it (I’m proud of myself for being able to fix it all by myself – I’m normally a dummkopf when it comes to stuff like that). Sorry for the unexpected delay.
I’m almost positive I know why the magpies and kestrels were feeling so frisky. It was a beautiful sunny morning with a pretty stiff breeze caused by an approaching cold front and their playful mood was initiated by the wind. The magpies, at least 30 of them – maybe more, in loose flocks, were obviously having a blast in flight as they played on the wind currents. They cavorted in the air, landing occasionally, for nearly 15 minutes before the kestrels arrived on the scene.
OK, let’s get on with it. Prepare yourself, this is a marathon post. All photos, and there’s a bunch of them, are presented in the order they were taken.
Magpies seemed to be everywhere – flying all around me and perched on the ground and on any and every nearby elevated perch. I fully expected magpies to land on my pickup but that never happened.
These magpies were on a sloping hill close to me.
Some of their chosen perches were decidedly unattractive, like this ugly utility box.
Are you getting the picture? Magpies really were…everywhere, at least it seemed like they were. There were more magpies on the fence than we see here but I couldn’t get all of them in frame.
Since, as usual, I was shooting out my pickup window, I was frustrated as hell to see so many magpies in flight close to me through my windshield and other windows and not be able to photograph them. This is one of my few successes.
They loved perching on and flying around that chain link fence, as evidenced by…
this photo and…
one more.
It was at this point that the female kestrel showed up, or at least it was when I first noticed her.
Many of the rest of these photos are of marginal quality for two reasons – the strong partial sidelight made the exposure very difficult and multiple transmission wires sometimes blocked parts of one or both birds. But I documented the behavior and that’s what was most important to me.
Here the magpie is very close to the kestrel but she doesn’t seem very concerned about it. Her only reaction was to…
fly a few feet to a…
different wire. At this angle there was another wire in front of the first wire, which caused an aggravating blurriness in front of both birds. The kestrel’s hairdo is evidence of the south wind.
When the much larger magpie swooped on her she barely reacted, forcing the magpie to choose between physically attacking her, aborting ‘his’ attack, or hovering nearly in place for a moment right next to her.
He chose the latter. Eventually she took off but she was…
in no hurry. It was at this point that I realized that she thought this was kinda fun.
She only traveled about 2′ before both birds landed on the same wire again. The magpie lowered his head and stared directly at her. She eventually reacted by…
taking off in an incredibly acrobatic flight maneuver that I once again interpreted as play.
You may have noticed that in this photo and the previous two, the wires are in slightly different places relative to each other – suggesting that the birds had moved on the wire. They hadn’t. That was caused by the wind moving the wires.
She dived down at an angle between the wires and headed toward the magpies perched on the chain link fence some distance away. More about her in a minute but it was soon after this that I noticed…
her mate, the male kestrel, on another wire above me. The kestrel was being swooped on by another magpie and they were soon joined by….
a second magpie. The male kestrel reacted by taking off and…
flying at one of the magpies. The kestrel actually intimidated the much larger magpie and…
forced it off the wire.
At that point the male kestrel and several magpies took turns chasing each other playfully in flight.
But I was never able to get both birds sharp and fully in the same frame. In this shot one of the magpies is chasing the kestrel but it’s out of frame to the right, so the kestrel’s shadow will have to do in its stead.
This is as close as I came to getting both birds sharp and fully in frame.
In the meantime, the female kestrel was playing with some of the magpies who were still hanging around the chain link fence. I was a busy photographer as I was alternately trying to photograph her through my pickup window behind me and her mate in flight with some of the other magpies, mostly in front of me.
Soon the male kestrel lured one of the magpies to another wire perch. He hopped from place to place on the wire at least a half dozen times and just waited for the magpie to swoop in on him, which it did every time.
This was one of my favorite kestrel-magpie encounters. When the kestrel didn’t take the bait and fly off, the magpie came in so close his flapping wings almost hit the kestrel.
The kestrel didn’t like that so he eventually relented and…
took off, once again in a highly acrobatic maneuver. I only wish the kestrel was sharper.
The previous photo is the one I posted 11 days ago.
I have dozens more photos similar to these but I’ve gotta stop sometime. I’ve already included 27 photos in this single post, which is probably way too many.
A new record for Feathered Photography.
Ron
I loved watching these magpies play with kestrels. You captured their sense of fun with some lovely action 🙂 It’s always good to see a post from you.
This was really fun. Thanks.
Absolutely fascinating Ron. I’ve not lived where magpies are common, so this was really a treat to see. Thank you for the post – and not stinting on the number of images!
“and not stinting on the number of images.
Well, that’s one thing on this post that no one can accuse me of. Thanks, Anthony.
I’m late to your Halloween Magpie/Kestrel Birdathon party but enjoyed it all the same. Kudos to you for getting your tech together and then having the stamina to do this post — fun pics and great narrative. I got my best laugh out of the “both birds sharp and fully in frame” shot, Kestrel tail on the way out and Magpie head on the way in. 😂 I hope you have more encounters with these fun-loving feathered friends!
“Kestrel tail on the way out and Magpie head on the way in”
Chris, put them together and we have an entire bird in the frame. A sharp one too.
A hybrid of sorts!
🙃
The first photo took my breath away, and the pleasure only increased as I followed through the sequence. I can’t say I’m going to hit the road to find magpie territory, but I will say the impulse is there. These are beautiful birds, and seeing their personality shine in these photos is special.
“I will say the impulse is there”
Follow your impulse, Shoreacres. You never know what good things you might find, magpies included. 🙂
Can there ever be too many pictures? I wonder…
These shots are great to see this play. Thank you!
“Can there ever be too many pictures?”
Arwen, if there can I approached that limit today.
Fun story – and very good photography given the amount of activity
(playing). You do an amazing job telling the story and putting the pix together.
Much appreciated, Judy.
What a treat – A delightful group of photos! How lucky you were to witness those interesting behaviors and we were lucky to reap the benefits!
Thank you, Joanne.
I believe we are cousins.
I love this series! It’s interesting how the size difference between the two species is more or less apparent depending on the angle…I’m impressed by the kestrels’ confidence around so many bigger birds. Maybe the “playfulness” of the atmosphere allowed them to feel less threatened, as well.
“I’m impressed by the kestrels’ confidence around so many bigger birds.”
It’s hard not to be impressed, Melanie. Kestrels truly are badass little falcons.
What a phenomenal post, Ron! Definitely worth waiting for! Love seeing the kestrels and magpies whooping it up and playing with each other. Magnificent acrobatics from the Mr. and Mrs. Kestrel! Your narration was spot-on and built the anticipation and excitement.
Thanks very much, Marty, on all counts.
Great story. You really know how to build the interest. I look forward to all your posts.
“You really know how to build the interest.”
I take that as a reflection on my narrative. Thanks for that, Betty.
Loved this post. This activity is something I’ve never expected to see. Good job!
I was surprised to see the behavior too, Buff. Maybe from recently fledged kestrels but not from adults.
Another great series, beautifully photographed and documented. Thanks, and Happy Halloween!
Same to you, Burrdoo. But to be honest, Halloween isn’t my favorite day on the calendar.
Just fantastic. Thanks much for taking these and telling the story.
Glad you enjoyed them, Kent.
Hilarious and beautiful!!! How fun! Thank you.
Thanks, Bea.
What fun! And I’d never realized that magpies were so beautiful.
Thanks, Sallie. They’re even more striking when their iridescence is showing up.
Enjoyed the series. 😊
Good.
Well this made for a delightful start to my Friday. I am sure happy that you are still “popping” up from time to time. Well played.
Thanks, Kelly. I sure hope it won’t be another 12 days before my next “pop”.
Sorry you had to wrestle with more computer problems again. Congrats on the self-fix. A moment of triumph over the tech.
Thank you for this morning’s set. It must have been quite a show. Would have liked to have seen the Kestrel pull off those aerobatic maneuvers. Don’t know how you were able to keep up with it all and get these gems.
Favorite shots for me are the one looking down at the top of the Kestrel low to the ground, and those Kestrel wingover shots.
“Don’t know how you were able to keep up with it all and get these gems.”
I didn’t keep up, Michael. There was too much going on in different places, so I missed a lot. The pessimist in me keeps thinking that I probably missed the best stuff.
But I’m happy to get what I did.
WOW! Impressive series of all the action! Happy to see this post in my inbox this morning – a fun break at the moment. I REALLY like the dorsal shot of the male Kestrel, wings fully extended over the grass. Great detail on his feather pattern as well as how he can blend into the surroundings! 🙂 Glad you solved the computer issue – they are SUCH a PITA at times……… 😉
Thank you, Judy. I’m glad you like that shot of the male kestrel in flight. Most of the time while I was trying to photograph them chasing each other in flight, the background was so close to them that my active focus point grabbed the background rather than the birds. Frustrating.