I was birding in a recently developed office park near Dulles Airport this
morning when my attention was drawn by a loud klee-klee-klee call of an
American Kestrel being chased closely by a crow. It appeared that the kestrel
was struggling to stay ahead of the crow, which would sometimes close within
inches of the kestrel, until the kestrel made a quick swerve. The chase, which
took place largely over an office building parking lot, went on for two to
three minutes before the kestrel landed in a high, covered light standard maybe
300 yards from the parking lot and the crow flew off. The kestrel--a
male--remained there for about five minutes until two crows flew up to the
light standard; the kestrel left as the crows landed. He flew down to an
unprotected perch at the top of a tree at the edge of the parking lot. He
remained there for several minutes, occasionally fending off a crow that chose
to dive repeatedly at him. (There were approximately 20 crows on top of the
four-story office building; I could not be sure how many different individuals
were involved in the chase.) At one point the kestrel and a crow were actually
perched in the same tree about three feet from each other. The crow hopped
from branch to branch around the kestrel, while the kestrel rotated on this
perch to stay facing the crow. The kestrel then ended the standoff by dropping
onto the crow as if he were now trying to prey on the much larger bird. When
they came out from behind the tree, however, the crow was again chasing the
kestrel, closing several times on him, and once actually appearing to strike
the kestrel with its bill. This type of interaction continued for at least 30
minutes. On two occasions, the kestrel appeared to deliberately provoke a
chase by calling loudly as he flew along the front of the office building where
the crows were resting. The crows reacted by giving chase; once the full flock
seemed to pursuing the kestrel.
During the half hour I watched, the kestrel never left the vicinity of the
office building to escape the crows. He might have been simply "playing" with
the crows, but I wondered whether he might have selected a nest site on this
building and whether his noisy fly-bys were some sort of distraction display.
I'd be interested to hear an explanation for this behavior -- distraction
display? daredevil playing? or something else?
Bill Brown
Herndon
