From Ronald Kotinsky

Look again. The mockingbird is standing on the barred owl.

Not chasing it. Not diving at it. Riding it.

This is mobbing, and it is how small birds handle a predator they could never fight. They harass it in the open, loudly, until it leaves. Damage is not the goal. Exposure is. An owl that has been found cannot ambush anything, and the whole neighborhood now knows where it is.

Northern Mockingbirds take it further than anyone. They mob hawks, crows, cats, dogs and people, and they do not appear to run the numbers first.

Then look at the owl face. Nothing. Not a flinch. A Barred Owl outweighs a mockingbird by roughly fifteen times, and the expression says exactly that.

March 2023. Canon R5, Sigma 500mm f/4, 1/1600, ISO 1250, with a stop of exposure compensation dialed in, because a dark bird against a bright sky will fool any meter you own.

Valrico - Florida