Birds Staying out of Reach

Besides choosing an out-of-the-way habitat, another way for birds to avoid predation is to remain in such dense cover that predators cannot enter even if they hunt in the area. Here the game becomes complex, because there are many kinds of predators with many different hunting techniques. The Sora (a type of rail) chooses the dense cover of cattails, rushes, and other marsh plants to hide from hawks and owls, but this does not buy it safety from such marshland predators as raccoons, minks, or snapping turtles. Snowy Plovers nestle into depressions on a sandy beach and can evade a falcon simply by not flying when the falcon attacks. But sometimes the attacker is a Northern Harrier instead of a falcon. The plover's tactic suddenly becomes a liability, because Northern Harriers readily pick prey from the ground, Ground-nesting species such as Eastern Meadowlarks and Rufous-sided Towhees are generally immune to aerial predators, but they are vulnerable to attacks by snakes and weasels.