Chirp.
Chirp.
Chirp.
It’s regular as a metronome as you cycle or walk the roads of rural Missouri. The red-winged blackbirds sit on the telephone lines. One’s always watching you, and that regular “Chirp.” is his announcement that he’s got eyes on an intruder, but it appears harmless. Ride a couple of dozen more yards and that bird falls silent, his role seamlessly assumed by his neighbor down the way. You can’t get near a colony of these birds without hearing them; and all of them hearing about you.
What could be more harmless than this little songbird, the lovely red-winged blackbird? Photo thanks to Alan Wilson **
A hawk glides by, and the tone changes from the relaxed, regular “Chirp” to a raucous squabble as the nearest sentry flies high into the air then dive-bombs, aiming at the base of the hawk’s tail feathers. A dozen more birds leap into flight, gaining altitude then joining the stream of defenders, each small bird dropping down on the hawk from above and behind, raking with claws then peeling off before the big predator has a chance to respond – and making room for the next attacker.
Bam, Bam, Bam, every three seconds another little bird takes his shot then circles back for his next turn. That big, scary hawk, that could tear any single blackbird apart in a head-on fight, is soon winging its way desperately to be anywhere but Here, away from this swarm of feathered fighter pilots. A couple of hawk feathers drift to the ground as the defenders split up to their personal territories to re-warm the eggs.
Red-winged blackbird seeing off a turkey vulture. Thanks for the image to Dori.*
You see, these blackbirds aren’t communists. Each mated pair keeps its nest, and when occasionally a neighbor intrudes, that neighbor gets told off and retreated.
They are, however, cooperative.
Each bird watches its area, and they keep regular communication so everyone knows of potential threats. When a threat does appear, every bird jumps in with enthusiasm to play its role.
It doesn’t matter that the predators are much bigger and much more dangerous individually. They don’t have a chance. The blackbirds have a plan and they work the plan. The plan plays to their strengths and the predators wing off at top speed, dropping bloody feathers on their way. The lure of a nestful of eggs is not payment enough to balance the harassment the predator’s going to face. If it’s not a predator, the blackbirds make perfectly good neighbors. They don’t waste their energy hassling random passers-by. But they do keep an eye on them.
Chirp.
Chirp.
Chirp.
Not a bad way to organize a community, eh?
*By Dori (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 us (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons
** By Alan D. Wilson, www.naturespicsonline.com [CC BY-SA 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons