Migratory raptors face a challenging journey year after year. Most of these birds nest in the continent’s north and begin their migration before winter, spending that time in warmer places in Central and South America. Colombia is part of this natural phenomenon as a migration route, a strategic stopover and resting place for raptors, and […]
Tag: raptors
Britain’s birds of prey – many of which were once hunted to extinction – are having a golden summer this year
I watch in awe as an osprey settles on a Scots pine and returns with a large fish for its hungry chicks. Moments later, I’m up close and personal with a red kite, its nest waving in the breeze. Finally, I see a baby peregrine falcon take its first flight – the world’s fastest living […]
The highly infectious avian flu is killing raptors, ducks, geese, seabirds and even foxes
Peter Stronach, an ecologist and wildlife photographer, couldn’t believe what he was witnessing as he went along the coastline of a Highland lake on a beautiful May evening. Male eider ducks, numerous species of gulls, a gannet, a puffin, and no fewer than 26 pink-footed geese, all of which should have been on their way […]
Life at 30: the EU project that has saved species from lynx to flying squirrels
“It has been a miracle,” whispers biologist Gabriel Llorens Folgado as he studies a tumble of granite boulders for any signs of movement. The miracle is that Spain’s lynx population has been saved. Today, in the wildflower-coated hills of the Sierra de Andújar in southern Spain, Folgado is looking for Magarza and her four cubs. […]
Scientists uncover widespread declines of raptors in Kenya
A recent study confirms alarming declines in raptor populations in Kenya. Incidental poisoning is a major problem for vultures in particular, depriving ecosystems of the birds’ vital role as scavengers. Conservationists are working with communities to help species recover. “The population of raptors today bears no resemblance to those numbers we saw a half century […]
Wildlife officers investigating shooting of osprey near Loveland
Wildlife officers are investigating the shooting of an osprey, the male half of a pair nesting on the south side of Boedecker Lake west of Loveland, leaving wildlife specialists worried for survival of his young. “It’s a concern,” said Debbie Eley, resource specialist with the city of Loveland’s open lands division. Male and female ospreys […]
Harris’s Hawks Hunt Like Wolves to Bring Down Dangerous Prey
For a desert rabbit, it’s hard to imagine what could be more terrifying than a hungry, nimble Harris’s Hawk. Except, that is, for five hungry, nimble Harris’s Hawks. We tend to think of raptors as solitary hunters, and for the most part that’s true. Unfortunately for the cottontails and jackrabbits of the American Southwest, however, […]
Bushmeat hunting threatens hornbills and raptors in Cameroon’s forests, study finds
Hornbills, vultures and eagles are being hunted for bushmeat in Cameroon in much greater numbers than previously thought, a new study has found. Previous research has shown that relatively few birds are sold in Cameroon’s markets compared to mammals and reptiles. However, market surveys can be biased toward commercially valuable wildlife, missing animals that are […]