Standing at my kitchen sink, I noticed a fluttering on the neighbor's roof and looked up to see a bird floundering around. It seemed as if it had flown into a 2nd story window and ricocheted onto the roof of their one-story back addition, and it looked as if it had a broken wing. I watched as it struggled, but something seemed off about its form. Which was the head, which wing was broken? Why did it seem to be all wings? Then it dawned on me that what I was seeing was two birds engaged in a fight.
Naturally, I yelled for the kids to look and then ran for the camera. What follows are a few hastily-made shots from an upstairs window, and what I pieced together from my observations.
The birds as they were soon after I noticed them:
The one on top appears to be a male house sparrow. He seemed to be attacking the one on the bottom, who has less dramatic plumage, and might be a non-mating male lower on the pecking order. Literally, in this case. When I examined the photo, I realized that they were locking beaks.
They continued to roll around the roof, almost like boys locked in a wrestling match. The dominant bird seemed to have his beak in the other's eye, but again, examining the photos indicates that no eyes were put out by this scuffle
Then a flurry:
...and they landed in the gutter.
This new situation seemed to startle them both out of their fight, and they both flew away a moment later. Internet research suggests that these were two males with different sparrow social status. Perhaps the one with bolder plumage felt the need to assert his dominance via this threat display. Neither bird appeared to be hurt.
Thus endeth my first intraspecies bird battle. Nature is awesome, y'all.
