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RAPTOR FACTS

Did you know...

  • A raptor is a bird that hunts and eats live animals and kills with its feet.
  • In flight, vultures have a habit of bowing their wings under their body, tips almost touching.
  • Bald Eagles don't get their white head and white tail until they grow into maturity when around four to five years old.
  • Osprey and some Owls dive into the water talons first, sometimes totally submerging themselves.
  • The enlarged cere of the Osprey can cover its nostrils when under water.
  • Northern Harriers exhibit sexual dimorphism. That is, the males and females are colored differently. The female is brown, the male grey. Harriers have owl-like facial discs.
  • Adult accipiters (Cooper's Hawk, Goshawk, and Sharp-shinned Hawk) have red eyes.
  • Swainson's Hawk can fly through the air catching and eating insects or bats. And it can do this without using echo-location like bats do.
  • A Red-tailed Hawk can spy a meadow mouse from 100 feet.
  • A Ferruginous Hawk is fierce and strong and is one of the best prairie dog hunters in the world. It is also the largest hawk in the world. But it is native only to North America.
  • The American Kestrel male and female exhibit different colors. They can hover while looking for small mice, grasshoppers, and crickets. They are often seen on fences and power lines bobbing their tails back and forth.
  • Merlins mimic the flight of pigeons to sneak up on unwary prey.
  • The Peregrine Falcons have been clocked to over 200 mph in a dive.
  • Owl's eyes are fixed in their sockets so they must rotate their heads (up to 270 degrees) to look around.
  • Owl's eyes are so large they can't move them around in the eye socket. They have to turn their entire head around to be able to see to the sides or behind them.
  • Owl's facial discs, especially Barn owls help to funnel sounds into the ear openings.
  • Owls can hear a mouse step on a twig up to 75 feet away or detect a lemming burrowing under the snow.
  • The Barn Owl can hunt by sound only, usually in the dead of the night. When threatened, it does an aggressive "toe dusting," moving its head back and forth over its talons. It will also make a sound that sounds like a snake hissing.
  • A typical family of Barn Owls, in raising their young and also feeding themselves can hunt over 7,000 mice in one year.
  • Elf Owls are the smallest in the world. Hiding in Saguaro Cactus holes by day, it shields its conspicuous eyes with a wing.

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