Great Horned Owl vs Red Tailed Hawk
From Ali Xiaidi
The mother owl cunningly led the hawk astray from her precious nest, where her tiny owlets had just hatched. Witnessing her swift flight out of the nest, with the hawk in pursuit, was truly mesmerizing. As she landed, the hawk attempted to attack her from behind, only to be captured in a perfectly timed shot. My camera was ready, and I was able to freeze this unexpected moment in time at Savannah’s in Florida.
And a reply in the comments had the results of the confrontation:
mom owl went after the hawk after he brushed her. she then returned to the nest and by then the dad owl was there already guarding the nest while mom handled business! Still love them both raptors - epic exp
Linking that video of the eagle attack on the RaptorCAM for the other reply made me feel that tension all over again. It was so fast, even with mamma owl knowing it was coming.
I didnt watch the eagle videos I shared, but if it’s the one where it’s getting curbstompped while sleeping by the GHO, that one is pretty brutal as well.
Raptors don’t play around!
Do hawks successfully hunt adult owls?
I don’t know if hunt is the right word. They’re both just doing what is best for themselves. They will eat each other’s young if they get the opportunity, and they will fight if they come across an adult.
Bird fighting seems more to drive the other off, as birds are built to be as light as possible, so the risk of injury usually gets someone to leave as most injuries will leave them flightless, and therefore left to starve and unable to use their greatest defense from predation. So death doesn’t usually seem to be the intention, but there is a much higher potential for injury resulting in death.
This post about a bald eagle attack on a Great Horned Owl nest and there is a GHO attack on a bald eagle in the comments.
There is also this post about an owl raised (sorta 😔) by hawks. This isn’t uncommon. What happens if the chick is brought back as food, but if the receiving babies aren’t hungry, it can get mixed up with the others…for a while. The outcome normally isn’t good.
Thanks for the background. I asked because I do know of birds that hunt others for example in cities there are some hawks that hunt pigeons. But pigeons are smaller and probably easier to carry that a owl for a hawk.
I did some more quick reading to make sure I’m giving you accurate info, and most things mentioned they mainly only fight during nesting season to protect the nest and babies, but otherwise they know they are too evenly matched. Even when they do fight, it is often hawks/eagles striking during daylight and owls attacking at night when they each have the upper hand.
Great Horned Owls are known to attack some very unusual targets though. They’re the only predator of skunks, since they have no sense of smell, and they will take adult turkeys while they’re sleeping in the trees and then remove some choice pieces (they love heads, if you find any animal without a head, a GHO is a likely culprit) and fly off with them.
