Mob Rule!

Here we have a tawny owl being mobbed by a host of small birds. 
As a boy, I would follow the sound of chattering blackbirds and chaffinches, knowing they had tracked down a bird of prey and were hurling abuse at it. Usually a tawny owl and often up in the canopy of a holly tree, close to the trunk. The owl would take flight on my appearance and the baying mob would follow, thinking they had dislodged it!
I don't know if a jay would tweak an owls tail but I remember many years ago, my tame magpie did just this to the farm cats, she would scold them, then creep up behind them to nip their tails!