Great Horned Owl vs Red Tailed Hawk
From Ali Xiaidi
The mother owl cunningly led the hawk astray from her precious nest, where her tiny owlets had just hatched. Witnessing her swift flight out of the nest, with the hawk in pursuit, was truly mesmerizing. As she landed, the hawk attempted to attack her from behind, only to be captured in a perfectly timed shot. My camera was ready, and I was able to freeze this unexpected moment in time at Savannah's in Florida.
And a reply in the comments had the results of the confrontation:
mom owl went after the hawk after he brushed her. she then returned to the nest and by then the dad owl was there already guarding the nest while mom handled business! Still love them both raptors - epic exp
Thanks for the background. I asked because I do know of birds that hunt others for example in cities there are some hawks that hunt pigeons. But pigeons are smaller and probably easier to carry that a owl for a hawk.
I did some more quick reading to make sure I'm giving you accurate info, and most things mentioned they mainly only fight during nesting season to protect the nest and babies, but otherwise they know they are too evenly matched. Even when they do fight, it is often hawks/eagles striking during daylight and owls attacking at night when they each have the upper hand.
Great Horned Owls are known to attack some very unusual targets though. They're the only predator of skunks, since they have no sense of smell, and they will take adult turkeys while they're sleeping in the trees and then remove some choice pieces (they love heads, if you find any animal without a head, a GHO is a likely culprit) and fly off with them.