rss feedBeautiful Plummage
To some, the phrase “spectacular birdlife” sounds like shorthand for “don’t expect to see any thing bigger than a dung beetle”. But, next time the lion you’re watching refuses to open its eyes, you might be amazed by the elaborate behaviour of some of the African bird species going on all around you.
Fish eagles are a good example. They have an interesting way of dealing with their slippery prey, which they grab in a spectacular fly-past reminiscent of aerial pig-sticking. The fish is dealt with in one of two ways depending on its size. Smaller ones are plucked clean out of the water, held sideways tight under the tail of the bird and carried away in flight. Larger ones, which can threaten the harmony of the flight, are lifted onto the surface of the water and then planed – much like a rather animated water ski – to the edge of the water to be dealt with on the bank.
Perhaps most spectacular of all hunting methods amongst the birds of prey are those that habitually catch other birds in flight, either by a blindingly fast and accurate stoop or by rapid pursuit. These are most notably the falcons – such as Peregrines, Lanners and Hobbies – whose speeds have been commonly estimated in stoops of up to 200 miles per hour.
The ornithologist Leslie Brown illustrated the extraordinary accuracy and speed of such birds in an event he witnessed involving a lanner falcon and a bee eater (itself no slouch). The falcon successfully caught the bee-eater which was rising on a spiral course in the opposite direction to that of the falcon. So the falcon had not only to allow for the erratic course of the bee-eater, but also to deal with the fact that it was approaching its prey with their combined eye-watering velocities.
Pound for pound this must be similar to riding downhill on a bicycle as fast as possible and attempting to catch a greyhound running towards you. With one hand.
