Re: [cobirds] Re: [wsbn] Brown-capped rosy finch behavior

I once witnessed a Cooper's Hawk killing of a juvenile Blue Jay and the grief of its parent that about broke my heart.

The Cooper fled over my yard and for some reason dropped its prey. The parent had been chasing and squawking after the Cooper, but stopped and perched on a tree limb when it saw the fledgling on the ground. The parent began to call loudly to the bird, but after awhile the tone of the call changed dramatically and became what I would describe as a slurred, gentle wailing. It cried over that dead baby for at least 15 minutes and was just heart-breaking to hear. Finally it flew away quietly and I dried my eyes.

Carol Blackard

carolblackard.com

Sent from my iPhone

On May 2, 2021, at 6:33 PM, Shep & Mary Harris <smnharris@gmail.com> wrote:



Glad you all were able to witness this behavior.

It's sad, but how incredibly interesting that they are so very social and bonded.

I was able to watch this behavior a couple times; once in Southern Africa with lesser striped swallows doing what looked like trying to revive their dead comrade and then a black-billed magpie gathering.  BTW - do you need any window treatments to prevent this from happening again? I have tons of samples.

Thanks for sharing!

Mary

On Sun, 2 May 2021 at 11:22, Bryan <bgieszl@hotmail.com> wrote:

Hello-

I've continued to host rosy finches in my yard at 8000 feet in Snowmass Village, up to 500 birds at a time of three species.  Today, unfortunately, two of the Brown-capped rosy-finches crashed into a window and died.  What followed was sad and remarkable.  For about the next hour, up to perhaps 200 of the finches gathered in the trees around the two dead finches.  They would descend and gather immediately around the birds, up to 100 at a time and linger next to the dead finches.  On occasion one of the finches would land on top of one of the dead birds, flapping its wings, reminiscent of copulation, or, as my 10-year-old son put it, "doing CPR."  This continued for about an hour or so.  I don't think that any of the attending birds were Gray-crowned or Black rosy-finches but I'm not totally sure of that.  It reminds me of the behavior of mourning elephants that linger around the body of a dead relative, as I've seen on nature documentaries.  My children took a brief video of the experience.  

Bryan Gieszl

Snowmass Village, CO

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