The bird of prey is one of the most magnificent animals that occupies this great earth. Here’s everything you need to know about a bird of prey.
What’s considered a bird of prey?
A bird is considered a bird of prey if it uses its talons and hooked beak to catch and eat its prey. All birds of prey are meat eaters, which is a characteristic that’s fairly unique to this sub sect of birds. Other birds eat vegetation, grain, seeds, berries and insects and some will even eat pieces of meat that have been left behind by other animals, but the bird of prey is the only animal that actively hunts for smaller mammals and then kills and eats the animal by itself. In a word, a bird of prey is a predator and relies on its superior hunting skills to eat. These birds also rely on fantastic eye sight that allows them to see their prey while they’re soaring or flying through the air.
Looking at a bird of prey
There is more than one bird of prey. Eagles, hawks, owls, falcons, kites and buzzards or vultures are considered birds of prey. Though each of these birds of prey shares some characteristics, let’s take a look at some of them individually and get some details on each bird of prey.
Hawks, or raptors, are a bird of prey that can reach unbelievably fast speeds (up to 150 miles and hour) while flying and then swoop down upon its prey. This kind of energy expansion exemplifies the hawks’ amazing stamina, which allows it to travel long distances at top speed without stopping.
There are many kinds of hawks, but generally they are considered a medium sized bird of prey. Hawks see in color and can see about eight times as well as a human, which is a great help when they’re whizzing through the air looking for a field mouse dinner. One interesting fact about the hawk is that the females are larger than the males. As with humans, most bird species have males that are larger than the females. This is not true with hawks.
Another fun bird of prey is the owl. In the bird of prey category, owls are sometimes forgotten. They’re less aggressive looking than hawks or eagles and they’ve been portrayed in society as more amiable than the other two.
The owl shares many characteristics with the hawk, but as a bird of prey, it also has some unique characteristics. For example, the owl is nocturnal and does its bidding at night whereas the hawk spends daylight hours searching for prey.
Another unique characteristic of the owl is its head rotation. Many people think that owls can turn their heads 360 degrees, but they can’t actually turn them all the way around. The owl is also the one bird of prey that has hearing that supersedes all of the other birds of prey.
