Missile Thrush?

Here are a few shots of a Mistle Thrush defending rowan berries from the flock of Waxwings in Musselburgh last weekend. The action was all a little rapid for my lens but the thrush was taking full advantage of the similarities of its flight action and that of a Sparrowhawk. The thrush seemed to be able to fool the Waxwings repeatedly with its hawk-like sallies. At one stage it even adopted a very convincing mantled-wing posture at the top of the tree.

Snipe mimics cat's head?

Thought I would re-post a crop of this shot. Not only does it show a Hooded Crow with feather de-pigmentation, as mentioned elsewhere, but closer inspection reveals a Common Snipe in a rather contorted position. This behaviour appeared to be in response to the close proximity of the crow and looks as though it is another example of a predator-deterrent signal.

In this case, the Snipe, as a potential prey species, appears to be mimicking the appearance of a Wild Cat head! Unlike the example of the wing-flicking in the Blackbird, which was an example of honest signalling, this type of mimicry is an example of deceptive signalling and could be termed Batesian mimicry (where a harmless mimic models a more dangerous species). Of course, it could be a photographic artifact but the Snipe does appear to have two eyes, a nose and a mouth all facing backwards towards the potential predator - it may be convincing enough to make a proportion of predators think twice about launching an attack...

 

If you can't see the cat - does this help?