Sparrow fight

[Ginger]

This weekend I watched two female sparrows engaged in what seemed like a fight to the death. They were clutching each other and biting each other's heads while rolling around on the floor around our feet. They were oblivious to several of us humans standing around watching, and also to the occasional male sparrow that seemed to try to stop the fight. I wish I had had my camera with me – it was a stunning thing to watch.

The fight must have lasted four or five minutes. Once or twice one of them got behind the other and would then grab the other by the back of the head in its beak. The one in front would "cheep" loudly and repeatedly while grabbed like this.

Most of the time the two of them were front on, usually with one's beak clamped by the other one's beak. At such times, they were also clasping each other by their feet. Sometimes they would flutter up a foot or so off the ground in this position. But most of the time the two sparrows were rolling around on the floor and under tables (this was outside a cafe) though obstacles didn't stop or slow them. They seemed completely unaware of anything around them.

At one point the sparrows fell off the raise wooden patio on to the ground about 18 inches below but that didn't stop them either. Eventually one flew of the down the street with the other chasing it, just a couple of feet behind. At various times, other sparrows (not just the male I mentioned) would hop nearby to watch.

They were definitely females (no black bibs - unlike the thrid bird that would occasionally intervene).

Amazing thing. I've never seen anything like it. Searching the web I can find references to male sparrows fighting and I did find one reference to female sparrows fighting.

Another thing that surprised me about this was the time of year. Clearly, in the first week of November this is not some spring rucking behaviour!

 

[RovingArcher]

Watching other critters go through their lives is fascinating. Would liked to have seen the altercation and then figure out why it took place. Maybe just a territorial dispute, where one wandered into the others feeding grounds.

 

[george]

Robins are just about the fiercest most territorial little birds you can find - I've seen behaviour like this from them on many occasions but not from sparrows. These fights start around about now - I was watching two male robins fighting just yesterday. I presume they are working out feeding territories rather than mating ones.

George

 

[Ginger]

Interesting to hear that you see fights start around now. I can see the logic of fighting over feeding grounds at this time of year.

Another thing that struck me about the fight that I saw was how clearly the social nature of the two birds concerned and the various sparrow onlookers came through.

 

[RovingArcher]

Actually, most animals aren't all that different than we are. They fight the battles, love their children, protect their own, formulate plans and execute them with precision, reason, problem solve and the list goes on. In ancient times, man would watch them and learn from them those things that we would have considered as admirable traits that would benefit us.

I was fortunate enough to watch two hummingbirds do battle. Others gathered around and the battle became quite aggressive and violent with one bird eventually knocking the other to the ground at my feet and landing hard on top of it. Then after a short time, the victor and his group returned to the trees and the defeated bird flew off in the opposite direction.

I've watched crows sucker in an egg stealing hawk, so that they could attack the hawk. How they did it was amazing. The group of crows took to flight and went a couple of hundred yards away, where they circled. The hawk moved in and immediately the crows moved back in and attacked the hawk. There were no active nests in the tree, but the crows had taken to sitting the two old nests that morning. A literal battle was fought, while they were several hundred feet off of the ground. I saw the hawk fall from the sky and when I went to examine the bird, it was almost completely stripped of it's primary feathers. The crows conspired, from what I saw, to draw the hawk in and they then proceeded to attack and kill the hawk. It's feathers were used for nest building.

I've watched as a mother mule deer stepped into a small clearing and stood motionless for a few minutes and she looked, listened and sniffed the air for trouble. Once she was satisfied that the coast was clear, out came two beautiful young fawns. They started their play. Then mom went over to a large cedar and bedded in the shade. When the fawns finished their play, they joined mom and she lovingly groomed their coats and cleaned their eyes and ears by licking them.

Just the other day, the Manx that we call Mo and who decided to live with us 11 or so years ago, wanted to get up on my wifes lap, but she had some magazines and a newspaper laying where he wanted to lay. He sat down and looked at her, then back at the pile on her lap and back at her again. Seemingly waiting for her to remove the obstacle. When she didn't clear the spot for him, he nudged the pile off of her lap with his head and took it's place. He reasoned and solved the problem.

Watching the other critters that share this planet with us is one of my favorite pastimes while I'm out and about.

 

[Kim]

Your cat was far more diplomatic than mine ever was...if you were sat in front of the fire and Saffron was of the opinion that such a prize position was her god given right, she would simply try to eat you out of the way, resorting to physical violence to prove a point....that she was so much more important that you were.

And she was right,
because she was,
and I miss her.

 

[RovingArcher]

Your beloved saffron sounds similar to the female, coco, that lives with us. She is a taupe tiger with white belly and can be very cantankerous. We will really miss both Mo and coco when it comes their time to leave.

Yeah, Mo used to be a real dude, owning the block and spending all his time fighting and winning. Then when he started getting up in age and was attacked by a coyote (who lost) and Mo started spending more time inside with us. Of course, he has many human friends that he visits, but he lives with us.