It’s been a while since I’ve had a close encounter with any raptor other than my neighbors the #BrooklynKestrels. 
On Sunday I walked into this. A Red-tailed Hawk, who had probably bathed earlier and was now grooming, perched fairly low in a dogwood. And nobody was happy about it but me. A pair of Baltimore Orioles and a couple of American Robins were in the tree, too. The song birds chirped loudly and kept flying at the hawk, sometimes striking it on the back and tail and nape, hoping to drive it away. During breeding season, smaller birds will get very bold. (From the archives: non-breeding Blue Jays hitting a hawk on the head.) 
I don’t think these were more than glancing taps, though. The hawk was unmovable. It continued to groom. A House Sparrow landed in the tree, as did a trio of Common Grackles, but none of these tried to budge the hawk. I thought a Kingbird overhead might get in the brawl, but it just kept going.
It started before I got there and was still going on when I left half an hour later.
Backyard and Beyond 
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