seen today on the way to work

[rone]

Over Hwy 85, a small grey bird with white wings flew into a crow or raven, which was also flying.  I saw it hit the crow three times.  I wonder what that was about.

Comments

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

As everyone else said, it was defending the nest. Such vigour is a little unusual (although the degree of aggression varies from species to species), but corvids cheerfully eat eggs and nestlings when they get the chance (and will occasionally take adult birds) so they aren't on the Xmas card list of the average passerine.