Master and I were sitting out on the balcony observing the hawks gracefully soaring through the sky.1 This prompted a conversation between us, in which he taught me a few things about predatory birds.
It's possible to identify a predatory bird by two specific behaviors.2 The first being the soar & plane motion (which allows the bird to use few calories due to him using the wind for energy) and swooping.
These two points will help you distinguish one type of a bird from another: eagles soar, falcons swoop,3 and hawks are somewhere in between.
Furthermore, these are three shelling points for a cluster in nature.
And as a bonus, try observing chickens sometime. You'll see them look up and around as a mechanism to scan their environment for vultures. Apparently, they even remember the good hiding spots for when one of them sounds an alert cluck.
- The balcony is on a hill that is as high as the trees which presents an excellent vantage point for viewing all sorts of animals. [↩]
- Well, first he asked me to identify that are the two things a car does... which are acceleration and steering. [↩]
- If you think a cheetah is the fastest animal in nature (clocking in at about 60MPH) you'd be wrong. Its actually a falcon who can swoop at speeds up to 200MPH. Which is a great speed to break a preys neck at. [↩]