I was sitting in my backyard, and saw a white-bellied sea eagle soaring through the air, with an osprey in hot pursuit. The osprey began swooping the sea eagle from above, and when it did, the sea eagle would flip upside-down with its talons outstretched (I presume to swipe at the osprey?). The osprey continued chasing it in this way until they were out of sight.
I was wondering if anyone here has seen something like this? And also, why would the osprey do this? (territory, nest-bothering, stolen fish???)
What an interesting observation!
Ryu
Canberra
Aiming for DSLR-quality shots with a bridge camera
I saw this same thing recently except that instead of the osprey it was a Little Eagle.
It's all about protection of territory, nesting sites, food & any other resources the birds can think of.
As a matter of fact I saw the same thing last year and got some pics. It alway amazes me how the smaller bird can drive off a much larger predator. I have even seen a White-Breasted Woodswallow chasing away a WBSE.
Wow Devster, very high quality pics of an impressive aerial battle!
Ryu
Canberra
Aiming for DSLR-quality shots with a bridge camera
Thanks Birdy, was very interesting to watch
This sort of mobbing behaviour is quite common and it happens with many species of birds harassing the larger raptors. Raptors will harass raptors larger than themselves too.