Birds of Prey

Birds of Prey

A sharp hooked beak and curved claws called Talons mark out the Raptors, the Birds of Prey as the deadly hunters of the world. Most are masterful flyers, able to stay aloft for hours while searching for prey with their incredible keen eyes. Then they dive like a bullet onto their chosen victim.

   Similar raptors like the Sharp shinned hawk are no bigger than a robin. They mainly eat frogs, lizards and other small creatures.

The Harpy Eagle (Harpia harpyja) is considered to be the most powerful eagle in the world. Its thick tarsi (legs), strong toes, and sharp talons make this species a formidable predator.

  Hawks are eagles that feed on rabbits, snakes, lizards and other birds. The huge Harpy eagle of the Amazon jungle snatches monkeys and sloths from the treetops. The osprey and fish eagles grab fish. Condors mostly feed on carrions (dead animals)

The Hobby is one of the most brightly coloured Hawks. It is so speedy and agile that it can catch dragonflies, swallows and swifts while in flight.

Types

There are about 295 species of the raptors. They hunt across a huge range of habitats from mountains to the rainforests . The Condors are among the largest flying birds with a wingspan of 3 m. Falcons such as peregrine are the greatest winged acrobats able to catch the birds in mid-flight with amazing agility.

The peregrine falcon is best known for its diving speed during flight—which can reach more than 300 km (186 miles) per hour—making it not only the world's fastest bird but also the world's fastest animals.

A Buzzard glides a warm air current waiting to catch its prey.

Dwindling Habitat

Many large raptors survive today only in remote, often mountainous terrain. However, others, like certain kestrels and kites, are adapted to living near people. They wheel over high-rise city buildings and motorways just as they soar along cliffs and shores.

The osprey has rough-skinned toes which help the sharp curved claws to grip slippery fish.

Symbols of Power

Eagles, with their graceful soaring that can turn into a deadly swoop, have long been associated with power. The Bald eagle is the national symbol of the USA. The Golden eagle is often called the King of the birds. It hunts rabbits, marmots, ground squirrels and birds. Its nest, or eyrie, is a bed of twigs perched high on a cliff to which the pairs return after a year.

The Golden eagle is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known birds of prey in the Northern Hemisphere.

The American Bald eagle has been the victim of hunting, water pollution and loss of natural habitat . By the  mid 1970s, only 2000 birds were left in the USA . Conservation laws were introduced and now there are more than 20,000.

The American Bald eagle is not actually bald, but its white head looks bald from a distance. It is a fish eater like the osprey.

Smaller raptors

Hawks, sparrowhawks, goshawks, falcons, kestrels and hobbies are smaller than eagles. They often take on other birds as well as ground - living animals.

  There are mainly two kinds of hawks:accipiters and boteos. Accipiters, like the goshawk, tend to wait on a branch and dash out to ambush the smaller birds under the cover of foliage. They have short rounded wings and a long narrow tail for great maneuverability . Buteos, on the other hand, such as kestrels, have longer wings and fan shaped tails. They soar high and scan the things below ready to swoop. The kestrel is often known as the window-hover, because it hovers in mid-air with wings and tail moving but head held still focussing on the ground. When it sees a victim, it drops suddenly and pounces on its prey.

Hunting for insects and other small prey in open territory, kestrels perch on wires or poles, or hover facing into the wind, flapping and adjusting their long tails to stay in place.

Winged Scavengers

The biggest birds of prey are not predators, but carrion feeders. Vultures and condors have weak bills and the food they eat must be soft and rotten before they can rip-off  for mouthfuls. The Bearded vulture or lammergeiers  takes bones from the carcass and flies high to drop them onto rocks. The bones smash to reveal the soft, bone marrow inside. All the vultures have vast wings and spend hours soaring high, peering across the landscape for corpses. Condors have such a keen smell that they can even locate dead meat under the canopy of trees by smell alone.

Condors have one of the longest wingspans.

Condors are one of the biggest flying birds. The wingspans of Andean condor exceed 3m. Sadly, due to human persecution, the Califernian condor is one of the world's rarest birds. It also tends to crash into power cables. Conservationists of the 1980s captured the few remaining wild birds in a desperate bid to breed them in captivity. Some of the young have been released to the wild, but this species remains on the very edge of extinction.

The Everglades kite feeds only one type of water snail, the apple snail.

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  Nikunja Bihari Sahu

Education Officer

Regional Science Centre

Bhopal