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Northern Pine, Cage Cleaning and birds!

Joeycoco98 May 22, 2010 04:02 PM

So while cleaning my cages today I placed my big male Northern Pine in the window to hang out until his cage was finished. While in the window he was spotted by a Blue Jay which proceeded to make these screeching calls. The Blue Jay was soon joined by at least three other jays, two Mocking Birds and a random Cardinal. They all proceeded to cause the biggest commotion calling very loudly and flying from my neighbors roof to my roof looking into the window to see the snake! Even after I removed the snake they returned for at least an hour randomly looking to see if the snake had returned. It was the funniest and most interesting thing I have seen in awhile. I had this happen with my burm once, he was loose on my patio but it was only a pair of Blue Jays not an assortment of different birds all fighting off the big bad snake.

Just thought I would share.

Miller
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1.1 Pituophis lineaticollis lineaticollis
1.1 Black Pine
1.2 Still Water Hypos
0.0.1 Possibly stillwater x Red Bull
1.2 N. Pinesnake
1.0 Eastern Kings
1.1 Black Milksnake
0.0.1 Plains Garter
1.0 Chow Chow(2003 Papi)
0.1 Cat(Shug

Replies (4)

monklet May 22, 2010 05:15 PM

What fun!!! That's called mobbing behavior. Presumable they do it to draw attention to a predator in order to remove any element of surprise.

Birders often attempt to incite this behavior by mimicking the call of pygmy owl, a species which routinely preys on small songbirds. This attracts any local flocks for and along with them, potential rarities.

Thanks for the report!
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See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

Joeycoco98 May 22, 2010 10:46 PM

Yea it was a lot of fun. What I found most interesting is that I left my house around 6 to go have dinner with a friend and they Blue Jays were still coming back peeking into the window looking for the snake, this was several hours after the initial encounter!

>>What fun!!! That's called mobbing behavior. Presumable they do it to draw attention to a predator in order to remove any element of surprise.
>>
>>Birders often attempt to incite this behavior by mimicking the call of pygmy owl, a species which routinely preys on small songbirds. This attracts any local flocks for and along with them, potential rarities.
>>
>>Thanks for the report!
>>-----
>> See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com
-----
1.1 Pituophis lineaticollis lineaticollis
1.1 Black Pine
1.2 Still Water Hypos
0.0.1 Possibly stillwater x Red Bull
1.2 N. Pinesnake
1.0 Eastern Kings
1.1 Black Milksnake
0.0.1 Plains Garter
1.0 Chow Chow(2003 Papi)
0.1 Cat(Shug

mattcbiker May 23, 2010 12:26 PM

cool story, those birds know! Mmmmmmm eggs and baby birds says the pinesnake.
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- Matt

1.0 Black Milk '04
1.0 Andean Milk '06
0.1 Eastern King '97
0.1 Bullsnake '09

Joeycoco98 May 24, 2010 12:23 AM

Hahahaha, I fed him a chick tonight in honor of his experience with the bully birds!

>>cool story, those birds know! Mmmmmmm eggs and baby birds says the pinesnake.
>>-----
>>- Matt
>>
>>1.0 Black Milk '04
>>1.0 Andean Milk '06
>>0.1 Eastern King '97
>>0.1 Bullsnake '09
-----
1.1 Pituophis lineaticollis lineaticollis
1.1 Black Pine
1.2 Still Water Hypos
0.0.1 Possibly stillwater x Red Bull
1.2 N. Pinesnake
1.0 Eastern Kings
1.1 Black Milksnake
0.0.1 Plains Garter
1.0 Chow Chow(2003 Papi)
0.1 Cat(Shug

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