About the Author

James Tyrrell

Alumni

James had hardly touched a camera when he came to Londolozi, but his writing skills that complemented his Honours degree in Zoology meant that he was quickly snapped up by the Londolozi blog team. An environment rich in photographers helped him develop the ...

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11 Comments

on Eagle vs. Owl

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Wow! Amazing sighting.

James, I saved the eagle owls🤗

Very cool interaction. The Owl definitely seemed unconcerned.

Fascinating! I hadn’t realized how large this owl is in comparison to the eagle. The Wahlbergs certainly have dive bombing down to an art, thanks to seeing your video.

Really interesting bird behavior

Spectacular James! Brave owl….

Thank you! Your blog always takes me by surprise. A brand new mock-fight among predators that is not so commonview…

Senior Digital Ranger

That is some nice mobbing behavior. Beautifully captured.

Wow!!! That was thrilling! My sister Tina and I witness a similarly amazing scene on UC Berkeley’s campus where a murder of crows were menacing what we believe was a young, but still large, golden eagle that must have gotten too close to their nesting. It was truly and incredible thing to witness, and we were merely a few feet away from it all unfolding!!

Very interesting indeed, James. I have a question. Some years ago we were dropping a small bird off at the “Free Me” centre in Rivonia. While we were there they demonstrated the training they were given to what had been injured birds in getting them to fly again. One of these was an Owl. There was nothing physically wrong with him, but evidently he was taking an AGE to learn to fly whereas all the other breeds of birds learnt quite quickly. He sat there solidly and refused to move. The trainers said that ALL the owls handed in were carefully treated until they were physically fine, but they all took ages longer to fly than any of the other birds. So, much as we all love owls, they said that they had come to the conclusion that owls were actually VERY dim. They were good at being owls of course, but that is where it stopped. How do you feel about the owls’ intelligence, James? Or anyone-else with any comments would be appreciated. Thanks for the video!. Wendy M

Hi Wendy,
Truth be told I have very little evidence – empirical or otherwise – to base my call on, so can’t really comment. I know owls are often touted as being wise, but I imagine that has more to do with their physical appearance than anything else…
I’d like to think they’re intelligent, but have nothing to base that on…

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