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
That’s something I’d like to have seen. I wonder if it would be more dangerous for both parties if the Peregrine had tried to grip the falcon. The falcon would have been wounded, but might have been able to get a grip on the Peregrine as it struggled.
Peter Shute
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
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