I was walking across our 20 acre property near Armstrong, British Columbia, in September a few years ago when I heard, then saw, a typical confrontation between a Crow and a Red-tailed Hawk. In my experience, this kind of confrontation generally happens between a single hawk and a small flock of crows but this time, there was just the one crow.

The crow was pestering the hawk and the hawk was making the usual sudden moves in the air to shake it off. Suddenly, the hawk manoeuvred itself into position above the crow and struck at the crow with its talons. The impact was plainly audible to me 300 feet or so below.

The hawk hung on to the crow and flew around for about 20 seconds or so, then nonchalantly (or so it appeared), let go of the crow. The crow plummeted to the ground. I figured the crow was dead because there was no movement of its wings as it fell and it did not move after it hit the ground.

The hawk then wheeled around for a while over the spot where it dropped the crow. It flew in its typical lazy circles, as if to say, “There, that takes care of that”. After a few more minutes, it leisurely flew off.

Charles Bailey, Armstrong, British Columbia, Canada