The ravens outnumbered the falcon, 6 to 1.
The six ravens were hysterical, frantically flying from limb to limb in a big old tree in a graveyard and making shrill alarm calls at the tops of their lungs.
What caused this racket was the arrival of a mysterious bird perched on a limb near the top of a tree, the ravens' home. The noise was enough to scare the dead out of their graves.
One of the ravens flew to a limb about a foot from the white-throated bird and looked straight into its fierce black eyes. "What are you?" the black and purple raven asked. "We've never seen anybody like you." The golden-beaked bird said nothing.
The ravens continued in their frenzied mode, flying and jumping from limb to leafless limb, calling alarms, while making sure they stayed close to each other, in a loosely formed huddle.
"Man, why aren't you talking to us?" another asked. "Why are you in our tree? This is our home and our playing field."
The bird's white chest was spotted with cocoa spots that matched its feathers. Perched regally on the tree limb, he remained silent.
Outraged at the bird's behaviour, the ravens' leader flew straight to the mystery bird, the sunlight making its wings look silver.
"Man, you're in our territory," he said. "If you can't tell us what you are or why you're here, we're going to have to ask you to fly away."
A brave blue jay delivered the news to the ravens' leader. "That's a peregrine falcon," said Blue. "It kills and eats other birds."
The leader rushed to make a flight call, leading the other five to safety in a nearby neighborhood abundant with the invigorating smell of pine trees and lawns rich with fallen brown acorns and black walnuts in bright green and brown shells.
The falcon was either being kind or was not up for the killing play.
Blue didn't tell the ravens the falcon was homeless, having been displaced by the restoration of its home in a historic water tower and its family's flying field around it.
Since that day, neighborhood humans have reported sightings of this territorial bird searching other neighborhoods for a place for his family.
The ravens are back in their old tree, flying from it to nearby trees to socialize and get food. Their alarm calls are gone, replaced by flight calls and calls to play games by tossing objects in the air and catching them in flight.
I'm not a referee, but I'd call the ravens the winners in this event.