Don't Mess with Mockingbirds

[Charlene5]

This article was in our local paper today and I found it interesting - although I'm not surprised by the findings.   Milo, our oldest cat (he's 20) is regularly dive-bombed by both mockingbirds and blue jays.   He's the only one of the four that hunts and occasionally I find one of his offerings outside the back door.  The birds are on to him!

MJ

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090518/ap_on_sc/us_sci_belligerent_birds

[Mhayes]

MJ,

How interesting! I used to watch the mockingbirds dive bomb the cats at my folks home. They never failed to make contact and it was fun to see how long before the cats sought cover.

Margie

[Tori803]

I read about this behavior in the book "King Solomon's Ring" by Konrad Lorenz (who, I think, was the first one to describe imprinting behavior in ducks and geese). My grandmother's cat had it's eye put out by a blue jay, so I keep reminding our cat to stay away from the big birds (like she's going to listen to me!).

[Hannie]

Many birds are so much smarter than we realize!

Great story MJ.

Hannie