There is a great variety of birds of prey, very striking for their beautiful plumage and admirable for their strength. These birds have had an evolutionary development over time and there are thousands of species located in different countries. Meet these wonderful birds in this article.
Birds Raptors
They are mostly carnivorous hunting birds, they have huge eyes which allows them to have very good eyesight and they are characterized by a strong curved beak, as well as heartbreaking claws to devour their prey. They also sport tough muscles and plumage that allow them to fly silently. They are able to feed on insects as well as live or dead animals of different sizes. They can be found in different habitats and they come in different sizes, their head being small in relation to their body and eyes.
Types of Birds of Prey
They are known by these three names and are classified into two large groups according to the time they live, these are:
Night Birds of Prey
These solitary birds live at night, because their vision improves in the dark as well as their hearing. They have large eyes and ears with a small hooked beak and a round shaped face. Its splendid plumage varies between reddish, yellowish, brown or black tones. Among them we find owls, owls, owls, among others, which fly silently so as not to scare their prey. They are also known as strigiformes.
Diurnal Birds of Prey
There are numerous species that make up this group of birds and they are found in different parts of the world except Antarctica; They are characterized by an imposing body, strong muscles and small legs with long fingers in which they have large claws with which they imprison their prey. Its beak has a curved shape, its head is round and its thick plumage is very important for the survival of the bird, which are mostly opaque in color.
Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos)
The golden eagle is one of the best-known birds of prey and is used as an emblematic symbol of spirituality and courage, since it is characterized by its strength and its ability to soar high, it has the power to lift its prey from the ground no matter what. Get over your weight and hunt while flying. It is easy to find in different regions enjoying keen eyesight and at the time of its old age it isolates itself to undergo a metamorphosis in which it renews its beak, claws and dark feathers to extend its lifespan.
Eagle Owl (Bubo bubo)
They can be found in semi-desert areas, in tundras and forests, they prefer places full of trees, since they are territorial and very solitary. They can be commonly seen in Eurasia where many are bred in captivity. They are large and emit a sound that can be heard up to 2 km away. Its activity is nocturnal in which it silently observes its prey and quickly descends on it to kill it with its claws. Most of these prey are mammals.
Eurasian Vulture (Torgos tracheliotus)
Also called lappet-faced vulture, it is located in Africa, it is large and has a neck without pink feathers. When feeding, it penetrates with its strong beak, the decomposed meat of the dead animal. This characteristic differentiates it from the rest of the vultures, as they wait for the torgo to carry out this process in order to feed on the softest parts of the carrion. On the other hand, it prefers trees to make nests and rest, and open spaces to search for food.
Common Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus)
It is found in Eurasia, Japan and Vietnam, in forested areas. This species is distinguished because the female is 25% larger than the male and weighs twice as much, its plumage resembles that of the hawk owl and the hawk warbler, its color is bluish gray with orange and with its small beak it holds to their prey before killing or tearing them apart, in turn, the legs with long and thin fingers contribute to this process. It has historically been praised for its bravery and was used as a symbol in Greek mythology.
The Eurasian Sparrowhawk likes to hunt any type of forest bird, but it also feeds on birds found in gardens, having an attack effectiveness of 10% when it flies low to catch its prey. It makes nests up to 60 cm in diameter in which it lays 4 to 5 very striking eggs due to their blue color and brown spots and after being incubated for 33 days, the chicks are born, which have a hard time surviving during the first year.
Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus)
It is known as the fastest in the world, it is found in mountains, valleys, coasts and cities. Their size is large, although the females are 30% larger than the males, they are generally dark in color, have a black head, with thin, pointed wings; It is very fast when hunting or diving and is capable of flying at more than 300 km/h. It can live up to 15 and a half years.
It has the peculiarity of hunting very early in the morning and at the end of the day, its diet consists of birds such as seagulls, pigeons, ducks; mammals, small reptiles, rodents as well as insects, those found on the coasts hunt seabirds and in the cities they prefer the rock dove. They can reproduce in the second or third year of life with the same partner, for which they dig a hole either in the sand or in the vegetation to lay their eggs.
Little Owl (Athene noctua)
The little owl has large intense yellow eyes, its size from the beak to the tail usually reaches about 25 cm in length, short, thick, brown with white spots and short round wings. It emits loud and sharp sounds mostly at the end of the day. It is usually found in territories with olive trees such as southern Europe and northern Africa. It feeds on small mammals, large insects, small birds and worms and is similar to the Scops Owl.
Barn Owl (Tyto alba)
This species of birds can be found distributed throughout the world, especially in rural areas. They are characterized by having short rounded wings, additionally excellent hearing and vision in the absence of light, which makes it easier for them to attack their prey in the middle of the dark, for this they wait watching their prey and move their heads in such a way that they can hardly be perceived. In this way, they ingest small birds and rodents such as shrews and mice as well as insects.
Regarding vocalization, the barn owl does not emit a specific sound to identify them, it only emits a characteristic hiss when it feels some danger or when its young need to feed. They are medium in size, 33 to 35 cm in length, and do not show many differences in size between male and female, as is often the case with birds of prey. Regarding its reproduction, it does not have a specific time to do it and lays between 4 and 7 eggs.
Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)
They have a length of 34 to 38 cm from the head to the tip of the tail, the males have a blue head with gray features and the plumage of the wings are coppery with black spots and a very characteristic long tail is observed. by its gray color at the top at the bottom a dark rounded edge. Its preferred place is thick bushes, as well as open spaces, but it nests in holes or cracks in trees, structures or rocks and also on the ground.
Another condition that characterizes the common kestrel is its ability to remain motionless in the air, watching its prey and then swooping down, especially on small mammals. As for reproduction, it is usually in the spring and it can lay from three to six eggs. This incubation process takes from 26 to 31 days, which is carried out mainly by the female while the male looks for food.
Common goshawk (Accipiter gentilis)
The Common Goshawk is a strong hunter characterized by its aggressiveness in ecosystems where trees predominate, its habitat is the dense forests that are located in the plains and mountains, specifically in North America, Asia and Europe. On the other hand, the color of its feathers are similar to that of the falcon, although it is a relative of the eagles and the sparrowhawk. The structure of its wings and tail allow it to maneuver in the midst of abundant vegetation.
The diet of these birds of prey is made up of different birds and small mammals, they show up during the day. They build their nests in the trees in which they lay between 3 to 4 eggs. Some similarities with eagles can be observed in terms of the shape of the head, the beak and the strong claws. The common goshawk has been considered the state bird of Punjab, which is one of the territories that makes up India.
Andean condor (Vultur gryphus)
It is a black bird, it has white feathers on its neck and wings and its head lacks feathers. It differs from most raptors in that the male is larger than the female. They have shown that they can live for many years and their reproduction is low, since they can do so from 5 to 6 years of age and it can take 2 years to lay an egg. It is located in the Andean mountain range and near the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
The Andean condor feeds on dead animals, starting with their soft parts, this is possible thanks to its strong beak with which it tears the skin and carrion tissues. It rests on very high cliffs where it can be protected from wind, rain and other predators. In particular, it has been used as a national symbol of different South American countries including Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador and Venezuela.
Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo)
It is characterized by having a black beak, brown and white colors in its feathers, it has a fan-shaped tail: wide and short. Its wings exhibit the same characteristics as the tail, wide and short, which allows it to make some sifting, sustained glides, in a circular way, with soft flapping. It prefers open spaces such as heaths with forests, meadows, which is why it can be found in Europe, the Caucasus, Iran, Russia, India and Africa; resides in these places and their migrations are short-distance.
The buzzard is robust, compact and medium-sized. Like other birds of prey, it feeds on small mammalian animals and is supplemented by insects, earthworms and small vertebrates, such as birds and reptiles. A very particular characteristic of the Buzzard is that it is a very noisy bird from its first day of birth and its vocalization is heard at all times of the year.
bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus)
This vulture belongs to the group of birds in danger of extinction in the European continent, it has long and narrow wings, feathers on its head that differentiate it from the rest of the vultures and can reach a weight from 4,5 to 7 kg. It is located in steep, rugged and rough terrain with cliffs or ravines where they can throw their prey. In this sense, they are located in Asia, Turkey, China, Africa and Europe.
A curious fact about this bird is that its diet is made up of bones, for which it waits for the other carnivorous animals to devour the soft parts of the dead mammal and then they go to eat its bones, they can eat pieces of 20 cm in length. In case the bones exceed that size, they are thrown against the rocks until they are broken into smaller pieces that they can swallow. That's where its particular name comes from. Additionally, it feeds on leftover meat and skins, lizards and mice.
Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)
As its name indicates, it feeds on fish and lives near lakes and coasts near where they build their nests with the remains of trees and sticks. Its life expectancy is 20 to 25 years and its main characteristics are: white back, dark brown feathers, narrow and long tail, angle-shaped wings. This type of bird is distributed all over the world, making it easy to find. An interesting peculiarity of the osprey is that it remains with the same partner throughout its life.
Other birds of prey or prey
It adds a great variety of species that make up birds of prey, they maintain a predatory way of life and currently enjoy legal protection although previously it was not that way. Their diversity depends on their behavioral and anatomical characteristics and the places where they make their habitat in different regions of the planet, some of which are mentioned below:
- african goshawk eagle
- Bonelli's Eagle
- Cape Eagle
- moluccan eagle
- steppe eagle
- Harpy Eagle or Greater Harpy
- Iberian imperial eagle
- eastern imperial eagle
- spotted eagle
- Indian spotted eagle
- Bonelli's Eagle
- pomeranian eagle
- rapacious eagle
- australian falcon
- european falcon
- eastern falcon
- Turumti Falcon
- Alcotán unicolor or opaque or slate falcon
- savanna aura
- jungle aura
- Guatemalan Scops Owl
- short-eared owl
- long-eared owl
- white horned owl
- Fraser's Owl
- desert owl
- philippine owl
- Milky Owl or Verreaux's Owl
- spotted owl
- Moorish owl
- Snowy owl
- Owl or brown tawny owl
- bengal eagle owl
- American Red-headed Vulture
- lobe-faced vulture
- Griffon vulture
- king vulture
- hawk owl
- australian kestrel
- Mauritius Kestrel
- madagascar kestrel
- Black-backed Kestrel or Dickinson's Kestrel
- white-eyed kestrel
- red footed kestrel
- Slaty or gray kestrel
- lesser kestrel
- foxy kestrel
- chuncho
- California condor
- royal condor
- Merlin
- Gyrfalcon or gyrfalcon
- Great horned owl or nacurutú
- berigora falcon
- borni falcon
- Eleanor's Falcon
- taita falcon
- maori falcon
- Mexican falcon or pale falcon
- bat falcon
- Red-breasted hawk or large black hawk
- leaden falcon
- saker falcon
- Saker Falcon Corralled Owlet
- hawk falcon
- yaggar falcon
- spectacled owl
- long-eared owl
- andean owl
- costa rican owlet
- blewitt owlet
- jungle owlet
- burrowing owl
- Guatemalan Owl
- pearly owlet
- european owlet
- Guatemalan Owl
- minimal owlet
- red-breasted owlet
- loud eagle
- Secretary
- keep up
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