RUTHLESS RAPTORS - Birds of prey

Birds of prey, also known as raptors, hunt and feed on other animals. The term "raptor" is derived from the Latin wordrapere (meaning to seize or take by force). These birds are characterized by keen vision that allows them to detect prey during flight and powerful talons and beaks.

Changeable Hawk Eagle with Pond Heron Kill - Kabini !!!

All raptors have a hooked beak, strong feet with sharp talons, keen eyesight, and a carnivorous diet. Hooked beak — The raptor's beak sets it apart from other birds. All raptors have the same beak design, curved at the tip with sharp cutting edges to rip and tear apart their prey. Falcons use their beak to kill their prey by severing the spinal cord. 

Juvenile Crested Serpent Eagle, Kabini

Oriental Honey Buzzard, Tadoba

The crested honey buzzard (Pernis ptilorhyncus) is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as kites, eagles and harriers. This species is also known as the Oriental honey buzzard.

Sharp talons — Birds of prey have powerful leg and toe muscles that end with sharp talons. This makes their feet lethal weapons. Their feet are perfectly designed to catch, hold, and carry prey. The length and size of a raptors toes, and the curvature and thickness of its talons are related to the type of prey it pursues. Most birds of prey have three toes pointing forward and one pointing backward. These toes can apply an extremely powerful grip on their prey, literally crushing it to death. The talons may also kill the prey by piercing the soft tissue and vital organs. Osprey, like owls, have one hinged toe that can be held in a forward or back position. This allows them to hold fish with two talons on each side for a secure grip. Osprey also have spiny scales on their feet that help them hold slippery fish more securely. 

Black Winged Kite, Bangalore

This long-winged raptor is predominantly grey or white with black shoulder patches, wing tips and eye stripe. The long falcon-like wings extend beyond the tail when the bird is perched. In flight, the short and square tail is visible and it is not forked as in the typical kites of the genus Milvus. 

Juvenile Serpent Eagle 

- was with a snake kill but in no mood to devour it..the prey seems to be a Hump Nosed Pit Viper and you can actually see blood oozing from its mouth with the raptor gripping it into a death trap with its talons.....Great to see the population of these serpent eagle s rise in Nagarhole !!!!

Keen eyesight — Raptors have very keen eyesight due to the relative size of the eyeball in proportion to their head, eye muscles designed for rapid focus, and the high resolution of the retina. Diurnal raptors have full color vision and two concentrations of sharp vision on the retina. This sharpest point of vision is called the fovea. When the raptor’s two fovea work in unison, they give them very accurate depth perception which aids catching moving objects. Nocturnal raptors, like owls, have an added advantage of remarkable night vision. Owls have a concentration of rods in their retina that are used to see in low light conditions. An owl's eyes are also located in the front of their heads, much like humans, giving them a larger area of binocular vision.

Masters Of Camouflage and my favourite subject OWLs:

The Indian eagle-owl, also called the rock eagle-owl or Bengal eagle-owl (Bubo bengalensis), is a species of large horned owl found in the Indian Subcontinent. They were earlier treated as a subspecies of the Eurasian eagle-owl. They are found in hilly and rocky scrub forests, and are usually seen in pairs. They have a deep resonant booming call that may be heard at dawn and dusk. They are typically large owls, and have "tufts" on their heads. They are splashed with brown and grey, and have a white throat patch with black small stripes.

The mottled owl (Strix virgata) is a medium-sized owl found in Central and South America from Mexico to Brazil and Argentina. The head and back are mottled brown and the underparts whitish, with vertical bars on the chest and throat. The eyes are dark and the head is round and they do not have ear tufts. They are territorial and found in dry forests and jungles up to 2,500 m (8,200 ft) above sea level.

BROWN FISH OWL

It has prominent ear tufts but as in all fish owls, their tufts hang to the side of the head and have a scraggly look. The upperparts are rufous brown and heavily streaked with black or dark brown. The underparts are buffy-fulvous to whitish, with wavy dark brown streaks and finer brown barring. The throat is white and can be conspicuously puffed, while the facial disk is indistinct. 

Himalayan vulture or Himalayan griffon vulture (Gyps himalayensis) is an Old World vulture in the family Accipitridae. Closely related to the European griffon vulture (G. fulvus) and once considered a subspecies of it, this species is found along the Himalayas and the adjoining Tibetan Plateau. It is one of the two largest Old World vultures and true raptors.

This is a huge vulture and is perhaps the largest and heaviest bird found in the Himalayas. Adults have a ruff that is long and pale brown with white streaks. The ruff feathers are long and spiky. The head is covered in down which is yellowish in adults but whitish in immature vultures. 

Himalayan Vulture

Osprey or more specifically the western osprey (Pandion haliaetus) — also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk— is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor, reaching more than 60 cm (24 in) in length and 180 cm (71 in) across the wings. It is brown on the upperparts and predominantly greyish on the head and underparts.

The osprey tolerates a wide variety of habitats, nesting in any location near a body of water providing an adequate food supply. It is found on all continents except Antarctica, although in South America it occurs only as a non-breeding migrant.

As its other common names suggest, the osprey's diet consists almost exclusively of fish. It possesses specialised physical characteristics and exhibits unique behaviour to assist in hunting and catching prey. As a result of these unique characteristics, it has been given its own taxonomic genus, Pandion and family, Pandionidae. 

OSPREY

Shikra (Accipiter badius) is a small bird of prey in the family Accipitridae found widely distributed in Asia and Africa where it is also called the little banded goshawk. The African forms may represent a separate species but have usually been considered as subspecies of the shikra. The shikra is very similar in appearance to other sparrowhawk species including the Chinese goshawk and Eurasian sparrowhawk. They have a sharp two note call and have the typical flap and glide flight. Their calls are imitated by drongos and the common hawk-cuckoo resembles it in plumage.

SHIKRA

INDIAN SCOPS OWL

The Indian scops owl is a common resident bird in forests and other well-wooded areas. It nests in a hole in a tree, laying 3–5 eggs.The Indian scops owl is a small (23–25 cm) owl, although it is one of the largest of the scops owls. Like other scops owls, it has small head tufts, or ears. The upperparts are grey or brown, depending on the morph, with faint buff spotting. The underparts are buff with fine darker streaking.The facial disc is whitish or buff, and the eyes are orange or brown. There is a buff neckband. Sexes are similar. The flight is deeply undulating.

This species is nocturnal. Through its natural camouflage, it is very difficult to see in daytime. But it can often be located by the small birds that mob it while it is roosting in a tree. It feeds mainly on insects. The call is a soft single note.

CUTE RAPTORS:

Spotted Owlets:

Jungle owlets have always fascinated me. They are these cute little fur balls which keep staring you from a tree hole or a cute perch high up in the canopy. A common resident of open habitats including farmland and human habitation, it has adapted to living in cities. They roost in small groups in the hollows of trees or in cavities in rocks or buildings. It nests in a hole in a tree or building, laying 3–5 eggs. 

Back to RAPTORS

The crested serpent eagle, as its English name suggests, is a specialist reptile eater which hunts over forests, often close to wet grassland, for snakes and lizards. It is placed along with the snake eagles of the genus Circaetus in the subfamily Circaetinae.It is found mainly over areas with thick vegetation both on the low hills and the plains. This species is a resident species, but in some parts of their range they are found only in summer.

Carnivorous diet — Although the diet varies from species to species, all raptors are meat eaters. Peregrine falcons feed mainly on water fowl while prairie falcons take mostly small mammals. Some species have a very strict diet like the snail kite found in Florida which eats only Pomacea, large, fresh-water snails. Great horned owls,on the other hand, are known to eat over 250 different kinds of animals. 

Changeable hawk-eagles eat mammals, birds, and reptiles. They keep a sharp lookout perched bolt upright on a bough amongst the canopy foliage of some high tree standing near a forest clearing. There, they wait for junglefowl, pheasants, hares, and other small animals coming out into the open. The bird then swoops down forcefully, strikes, and bears the prey away in its talons. Here in this picture taken in Kabini you can see the raptor tearing into tough Monitor Lizard skin.

Crested Serpent Eagle with a Frog Kill !

Content Credit:http://www.blm.gov/id/st/en/prog/blm_special_areas/birds_of_prey_nca/links/birds_of_prey__raptors.html & Wikipedia

Blog & Photo Credit:

Krishnaprasad N (KP