McGill

Comment Threads

• Pigeon commented on Oh, 2022!
  Starlings are vicious little fuckers. They kill each other by grabbing the other bird's head with one foot and squeezing a claw in through each eye to meet in the brain, which is quite splendidly gruesome. Had no idea spadges were similarly inclined, though....
• Paul commented on Oh, 2022!
  I don't know if I first came across this here or somewhere else, but for those who haven't heard it before, Mitchell & Webb on the true meaning of birdsong. Starlings are vicious little fuckers. They kill each other by grabbing the other bird's head with one foot and squeezing a claw in through each eye to meet in the brain, which is quite splendidly gruesome. I found this surprising; most animal fights are much more about posturing to persuade the other one to back down; actual fights to the death are very rare. But a quick look around the...
• David L commented on Oh, 2022!
  Apparently in the US (maybe just eastern US), owls and crows hate each other. And will attack when they find each other. But since they live on opposite sides of the clock they tend to not meet up....
• Bill Arnold commented on Oh, 2022!
  Great Horned owls (very large North American owls) will kill roosting crows, and eat their heads or just their (large) brains. They are silent nighttime death. Crows will sometimes find a Great Horned owl (or owls) during the day (they can be hard to spot) and call in a mob (with recognizable vocalizations) to harass it/them until the owl(s) leave(s) the area. Had the mobbing happen with a pair of Great Horned owls that nested and raised (3?) chicks in one of several very large willow trees in my yard. The parents did not leave; they just suffered the harassment...
• ilya187 commented on Oh, 2022!
  I found this surprising; most animal fights are much more about posturing to persuade the other one to back down; actual fights to the death are very rare. Not as rare as people used to think: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/28/495798448/what-meerkat-murder-tells-us-about-human-violence 19.4% of all meerkat deaths are caused by another meerkat. That's the highest rate of intraspecies killing of all mammals. Puts "The Lion King" in a very different light! Also note that numbers 2 through 6 are all primates....