birding-aus

suicidal Red-tailed Hawk

To: Nikolas Haass <>,
Subject: suicidal Red-tailed Hawk
From: brian fleming <>
Date: Sun, 31 Mar 2013 10:23:54 +1100
From the natural selection angle, for a Buteo hawk to land on an Eagle's nest in the Eagle's presence is worthy of a Darwin Award.

More than twenty years ago, we were at the You Yangs in September. We watched fascinated as a pair of Peregrines chased each other round the hill-tops in courting flight, with acrobatics thrown in. A Brown Falcon got up in the air - perhaps to make its own territorial claim. A serious error - one of the Peregrines dived at it. The Brown tried evasive action but the Peregrine struck it on the back. The talons were not extended - what the Brown got was a passing biff with the knuckles of the foot. The Brown retired very hastily to a wattle-tree in great disorder. It then moved lower in the wattle, apparently winded and severely frightened, with its plumage very ruffled.

When I first saw the falcons, I had scuttled up a fairly high rock and the collision took place quite close to my eye-level, over steeply sloping ground, so I had an excellent view. I am certain that if the Peregrine had struck the Brown with its claws open, the Brown would have been killed.

Anthea Fleming




On 30/03/2013 9:28 PM, Nikolas Haass wrote:
Hi birding-aus,

Not sure if anyone has ever seen a White-bellied Sea-Eagle doing what its North 
American cousin, a Bald Eagle, is doing here:
Eagle-cam in New Jersey, US.
http://www.philly.com/philly/video/200618371.html
Note: This footage contains some avian violence.

Cheers,

Nikolas
----------------
Nikolas Haass

Sydney, NSW
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