![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/MerlinPreeningonNaturalCrooksDotCom.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAmerican Crow Versus Merlin: An Unexpected Aerial Fight<\/h2>\n
Crows don\u2019t particularly like large predatory birds such as hawks and owls. You\u2019ll often read of crows \u201cmobbing\u201d a Great Horned Owl until it\u2019s forced to leave a tree and find elsewhere to roost so it can get some peaceful rest before nightfall.<\/p>\n
So when I heard a crow calling aggressively and saw it swooping repeatedly towards the bare branch of a dead tree top, I stopped my car and looked up, way up.<\/p>\n Sure enough, the Crow was bombing at another much smaller bird. I grabbed my camera, parked the car perilously close to the ditch with the hazard lights flashing and started walking briskly up the steep muddy hill on the country road.<\/p>\n At first, I thought the Crow was after a small hawk. Then the raptor burst up into the air after the crow. The narrow pointed wings and the type of wing beats suggested this was a falcon not a hawk.<\/p>\n Despite the poor lighting, the distance and the height of the birds, I kept trying to get photos. Later, at home, I would be able to confirm that the raptor was not an American Kestrel, which is robin-sized, nor a Peregrine, which is crow-sized, but the medium-sized Merlin.<\/p>\n The two birds fought repeatedly over the next 10 minutes. The crow would perch, calling, and then working itself into a fury, try flying straight at the Merlin. It would come in from the sides, above, even from below.<\/p>\n Eventually, the Merlin would lift in the air and chase the Crow back. There is some noticeable blood on the talons of the Merlin but from what or who I can\u2019t tell.<\/p>\n The Merlin would then perch again trying to ignore the bigger black bird. The Crow, infuriated, would begin its bullying tactics again.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nBattle for Tree Top Supremacy<\/h2>\n
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