Not so fast, buster! Sparrow grabs rival's ankle in astonishing image of back garden food fight
It appears nonchalant - yet the instincts of this sparrow as he reaches out to grab a rival's ankle are spectacularly acute.
He is reacting to a winged intruder's attempts to steal his dinner from a bird table in Switzerland.
Part time postman and photographer, Urs Schmidli, 57, captured the birds squabbling in mid-air combat from his leafy back garden in Scherz.
Come back here: A sparrow catches the ankle of a winged intruder trying to steal its dinner in photographer Urs Schmidli's back garden in Sherz, Switzerland
'I was watching two sparrows in my garden' said Urs.
'Then all of a sudden a third one appeared and seemed to disturb them. It even wanted to steal some food from the two others. So that was why one was holding the thief back.
'It all happened within a second. After the grab the grabbing sparrow had to let go of course and the thief flew away. He wasn't coming back.'
In another action-packed picture one sparrow looks to be gouging the eyes out of his rival for food by stabbing him in the face with his sharp claws.
'The sparrows come into my garden to look for food,' said Urs. 'They fight of course, but I have never seen injuries.'
Mid-air battle: Part-time postman and photographer, Urs Schmidli, 57, spent two years taking pictures seriously from his leafy back garden
Slow motion: The birds scrap and flap their wings at incredible speeds as they struggle for supremacy
Apart from requiring a lot of patience and a decent camera Urs is lucky enough to have a garden which is a paradise for little birds like the sparrow.
He takes his pictures at such speed that he does not even know what images of the secret lives of sparrows he has captured until he checks his view finder.
'People are are amazed by my pictures and ask me over and over again, how it was possible to shoot a scene like this?' said Urs.
'But this is my speciality and I keep the secret to myself. It is my goal to show people how sparrows live and interact. They are special and interesting - much more than just a little bird.'
More than birds: Photographer Urs Schmidli considers himself very lucky to have such great action taking place at home
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