Just a few days ago, I was working from my laptop in one of the Chan Chich Lodge common areas when I saw an Ocellated Turkey on the road – not a peculiar sight at all – that walked a few steps before suddenly doing a swift yet panicked pirouette  – a slightly less usual occurrence, in my brief experience with the scintillant species. I grabbed my camera, which doesn’t leave my side here at the Lodge, and recorded the following video, in which the turkey gave a new meaning to the chicken-dance, albeit as an unwilling partner:

Normally, when smaller birds harass a larger one it’s an example of mobbing: the little guys gang up on a perceived predator like an owl or hawk to push it out of their territory and reduce the risk of getting eaten by surprise. But the other explanation for dive-bombing like the antics displayed in the video above are that the suddenly aggressive birds are parents of nearby offspring, whether eggs or chicks, and are shooing another animal away from the nest or young.

As I confirmed the following day, this was the reason the innocent Ocellated Turkey, a species endemic to the Yucatan Peninsula that primarily eats vegetable matter, was waylaid by protective Tropical Kingbird parents while casually walking down a path at the Chan Chich Lodge. Look out tomorrow for a video of the cute kingbird chick getting fed and taken care of!