Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Odd Bird Behavior

Recently someone posted a note on va-bird about some unusual bird activity that he observed and photographed at Huntley Meadows, a wildlife preserve in Fairfax County. The photographs can be found here; see especially this one, this one, this one, and this one. The fish crow shown there appears to be chasing the mallard with a stick. Why it would be doing this, I do not know. I doubt that the two are in competition for food, or that the mallard would be threatening any nest areas. Any other ideas?