Accipiter mocking a Martin!

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Friday I was sitting on the screened-in porch watching the birds and awaiting the approaching thunderstorms. The porch is on the second level with our T-14 straight out from the porch about 30 yds. To my left is a huge sycamore at about 200 yds.

A Sharp-shinned hawk flew up into the sycamore and started watching the yard. I was paying close attention because of a starling in the holding cage of my repeating trap, unsure if he might try to get the starling. He finally took off and glided towards the T-14 and myself. Just before he disappeared above the roof of the porch, I heard for the first time this year, the distinctive chirps of a Purple Martian (the hello call like when they first approach a Martian house).

As a reflex action, I jumped up, stepped close to the screen, and started looking around the sky like an idiot. Yeah, I do it too. :wink: I took a few minutes of thinking about what I witnessed for me to realize what had actually happen.

The Sharpie was definitely seeing if any Martins were in the house by mocking their hello call! His volume was half or a third of that of a Martin but the tone was perfect.

Has anyone ever heard of this happening before?
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Guest

The sharpy has a few calls that sound very "bird" like. Accipiters don't mimic any type of call to lure prey. They may imitate prey by body movement (e.g. a cooper's flying like a pigeon at a dairy farm amongst a bunch of pigeons) but they don't mimic. They don't have that capability. Their 'vocabulary' is very limited as it is, they rarely make noise and it usually isn't in the presence of us. Hopefully you don't lose any martins, but shapries are VERY agile and quick birds. I hunted with one and the sharpy would take off after a sparrow and it was so quick that my brain couldn't register it left the fist until I actually saw it in mid flight or when the sharpy was on the bird.

Good luck.
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Glen Webb Jr
Posts: 478
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2004 1:03 pm
Location: Illinois/Stewardson

I hunted with one and the sharpy would take off after a sparrow and it was so quick that my brain couldn't register it left the fist until I actually saw it in mid flight or when the sharpy was on the bird.
That just sounds so magnificent! :shock:
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Guest

Well... That actually makes me feel better!

However, it doesn?t explain what I heard....

Saturday about noon, I saw and heard the first two Martins for this year. They were moving fast due south and chattering all the way.
Our resident Mocking bird doesn?t do Martin calls, yet anyway.

The thing that gets me is why ?any? bird would make a PM ?hello? call with a Sharpe flying across the yard, unless it was the sharpie?

I don?t know, our minds can play tricks on us but mine usually behaves. :lol:
It would be nice to hear it again so I would know for sure. :???:
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Guest

There may have been a martin in the house you didn't know about. And making fun of the hawk, saying you can't get me!!
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