Birds of What?

Hi there, welcome to Beak and Talon, where I'll be talking about morphological (physical attributes like beaks, wings and crests) and some behavioural adaptations of Birds of Prey, Raptors or whichever is to your liking. Maybe you’re wondering, what is a bird of prey or raptor? Like those things in Jurassic park? Or do you just have no clue? Well for those of you who fit in the latter category, I think this is a good place to start.

Birds of prey is a broad term referring to a variety of families of birds which are carnivorous in nature. There are both diurnal and nocturnal species e.g. falcons and owls. Owls have been around at least since the Paleocene more than 56mya (Mayr, 2006) and other taxa (scientific term regarding a taxonomical group ie. What scientists use to classify different living things) such as the family Accipitridae (Hawks, eagles, old world vultures etc.) have been around for at least 20 million years (Walker and Dyke, 2006). They usually have sharp hooked beaks, sharp talons and generally have very good eyesight because of their similar roles in their ecosystems. They vary greatly in size from the small black-thighed falconet with a wingspan of only about 30cm (about the size of a sparrow to the massive Andean condor which can have wingspans of just over 3m (Ferguson-Lees and Christie, 2001).

Adult Andean Condor in flight.     Source: www.wikipedia.org

These remarkable group of birds can be found all over the world from the deserts of Africa and Australia to the rainforests in South East Asia and even the Arctic Circle (Ferguson-Lees and Christie, 2001). Each group of birds has their own specialty and have procured different evolutionary tactics when they hunt or forage for food. Despite the differences between species, there are general similarities for different families, from the scavenging vultures and condors to the striking falcons and vice gripping eagles. These birds have all evolved to fulfill their specific niche; from gliding to diving, tearing and gripping, ripping and striking, their wings, talons and beaks are all suited to their needs and behaviours and that’s just skimming the surface of what these wonderful creatures have to offer.

Come back next week as we start to look at each of these birds more closely!

FERGUSON-LEES, J. & CHRISTIE, D. A. 2001. Raptors of the world, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

MAYR, G. 2006. A new raptorial bird from the Middle Eocene of Messel, Germany. Historical Biology, 18, 99-102.

WALKER, C. A. & DYKE, G. J. 2006. New records of fossil birds of prey from the Miocene of Kenya. Historical Biology, 18, 95-98.