With all the discussion about owl defense in the grocery store post, I thought I'd highlight some in a new post so everyone can see.
Owl's main weapons are their feet. They've got big claws, they are super strong, and they're lightning fast. In comparison, the beak is weak, short, and curved so it doesn't give much reach. It's also close to the vital eyes and ears.
This Long Eared Owl is defending its egg from a very determined kestrel. You can see all the defense behaviors (clicking, flaring, and fighting) a number of times in the full video.
Here's the description from the video:
I invite you to watch two stories -LEOS courtship including food dance, rodent delivery and nest scraping. Each story takes place in Hungary in March 2024 and each ends in a fight of Long-eared owl (Female) with Kestrel (Female).
In the first case, the nest box belonged to long- eared owls in previous seasons and Kestrels want to take it over this season. They did not succeed. Mrs LEO Won.
The nest box which is shown in the second part of the video belonged to Kestrels in previous seasons but in 2024, LEOS occupied it during the night and Kestrels during the day. Thus, when Mrs LEO had her first egg and stayed in the nest box during the day, a problem arose as Kestrels wanted to have this nest box for themselves and fought for it. In this case, Kestrels won and Mrs LEO left her egg in the nest box. Kestrels do not eat the egg but guard the nest box.
Another nest box has been installed next to it, so that both Kestrels and LEOS Could have their own place but Kestrels guard both nest boxes now and LEOS do not come to any of them. Enjoy!
I've put the best kick attack in the title pic here for you if you don't want to watch the whole thing. The video is great though, the sound adds a lot to the experience and there is so much great bird behavior. The kestrel is really trash talking the LEO before many of the fights.
There's nothing I'd consider especially graphic, but it's bird fighting, and the egg does not make it in part 2, so there is that.
Here it is cropped and speed reduced to 15‰. It's 18 frames per second in the original gif, so even at 15‰ it's a bit hard to see because it's so fast.
This is great. Really shows how the owl gets air, rocks and shoves forward with its talons out to fuck that kestrels day right up.
Surely it takes some balls to come i for an attack on the home ground like that.
This is probably the best angle I've seen on it. Lots of the cameras are inside the houses, in guessing for weather reasons, so the fight usually blocks the camera.
It sounds like the owl was the one human law would consider to be in the wrong, as the description said this was the kestrels' home last season.
I do hope Mrs Owl was able to lay another egg in a less disputed spot. She put up a heck of a fight though. That was a serious drop kick!
If you haven't seen this video, it is another great owl ninja attack. I love his thanks to the camera you can see the owl's eyes as it nails the eagle. Eagles and larger owls will have nest disputes as well, with the eagles attacking during daylight and the owls seeking payback at night when they each have the advantage.