This bird did not like the drone.
I have flown around big birds before. Bald eagles, ravens, seagulls, other hawks… few had taken more that a moments notice of the drone. This attack surprised me, I did not even see the hawk coming, and it came in hard.
I was on the return leg of an exploration into the ʻōhia forest behind Puʻuwaʻawaʻa and having a little fun with the drone. Simple plan… Set the drone to hover and then bike past through the camera view.
I had left the drone to hover for the moment as I moved to the next spot, when I look up to see a flash of white slashing at the drone. It hits and the drone staggers in the air before recovering.
I know immediately, the attacker is an ʻio, a Hawaiian hawk. Identification is easy, there is only one hawk to be found in the islands, no possible confusion. ʻIo are forest hawks, short winged and highly maneuverable. They prey on other birds in these forests, skilled in air to air combat.
As I grab the controller the advice I had read online comes to me… Go vertical. The drone can go straight up, a manuever the hawk cannot match. I jam the joystick to the limit. This works, I leave the hawk circling below… Oh, heck… The hawk is circling and climbing.
I need to get the drone back and leave, defusing this little aerial dogfight. I fly the drone to another gap in the trees and drop hard, bringing the drone to the ground as fast as I can.
The hawk follows.
The trees momentarily frustrate the hawk, giving me time to land. But we are not done yet! The hawk lands in the ʻōhia tree just above me, staring at me and the drone from forty feet away.
We stare at each other… I wonder why the drone was pursued with such intensity. Is there a nest nearby? Territorial incursion? Did the ʻio consider the drone potential prey? The silent stare I recieve provides no answers. Nodding to the hawk I don my pack, mount the bike, and bounce off down the road.
No apparent damage to either drone or ʻio, a bit of a relief.
No I did not get any video of the attack, I was in the middle of re-positioning for another shot and then busy getting the drone out of the hawk’s gunsights. I did get a mugshot of the attacker as he sat in the tree watching me put the drone away.
Share this:
