birding-aus

Peregrine attacks

To: birding-aus <>
Subject: Peregrine attacks
From: Andrew <>
Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 18:53:21 +1000
Hello everyone
Today in the Noosa hinterland, I witnessed some spectacular flying as a
Peregrine falcon took to attacking a pair of wedge-tailed eagles.  It
was stoop diving them and then pulling away at the last second as the
eagles turned their talons up to meet the attack.  The attacks were
triggered whenever the eagles soared near the falcon's roosting/nesting
site.  The falcon ignored a pair of black shouldered kites that were in
the same area.  I consulted Debus - the peregrine laying season starts
in August so it is highly unlikely an actual nest was involved.  Debus
makes the comment that peregrines "often harass larger birds".  I
suppose for young falcons harassing larger birds is a way of practising
hunting skills.  Has anyone seen a peregrine harassing a larger bird for
no apparent reason at all, or is it always associated with defence?
Andrew Thelander


Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to 

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
  • Peregrine attacks, Andrew <=
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU