Precise Predation :: Picture Poetry
I had witnessed a Shikra (Accipiter badius, also known as Little Banded Goshawk) hunting a tiny White-Rumped Munia (Lonchura striata, also known as White-Rumped Mannikin) on 16-Jan-16 in Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary. It had influenced me with surprise, shock, sadness and of course awe. The emotional concoction has come out as a 16-line Tamil Venbaa verse!
This is what happened (especially for those who do not know to read Tamil): While shooting for birds in a paddy field in Vedanthangal, was surprised to see about 5 White-Rumped Munias chirping happily around me in a thorny bush about 3 to 4 feet away from me. In fact, a couple even did come close to my hand's length. I started to wonder how did they trust me so much.
Just then, all of these munias took off and flew towards western direction. Just then, a Shikra attacked it from south in an almost 90-degree tangent to their flight path. Shikra did hit one of the 5 munias that were quick enough to maneuver and change the path. Was witnessing all this that happened in a matter of second while standing in the paddy field path.
The bird that was hit fell down in the paddy field and was flapping its wet wings. The field was filled with water for growing paddy crops, which were laid out in neat rows and were strutting out of water like short grasses (about a feet tall). Instinctively, I moved and tried to enter into the damp paddy field to save the possibly wounded bird.
However, in the next second or so, the shikra did a wonderful U-turn in mid-air and swooped down on to the struggling bird, picked it in its talons and flew to another path between the fields, which was about 30 meters from the spot where I was standing. Perhaps it was catching its breath. After all, shikra is a falcon and these raptors are cheetahs amongst birds, but many times faster and more efficient! After about half a minute, the pale colored shikra took off with the dark colored prey in its talons.
Precise Predation :: Picture Poetry
I had witnessed a Shikra (Accipiter badius, also known as Little Banded Goshawk) hunting a tiny White-Rumped Munia (Lonchura striata, also known as White-Rumped Mannikin) on 16-Jan-16 in Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary. It had influenced me with surprise, shock, sadness and of course awe. The emotional concoction has come out as a 16-line Tamil Venbaa verse!
This is what happened (especially for those who do not know to read Tamil): While shooting for birds in a paddy field in Vedanthangal, was surprised to see about 5 White-Rumped Munias chirping happily around me in a thorny bush about 3 to 4 feet away from me. In fact, a couple even did come close to my hand's length. I started to wonder how did they trust me so much.
Just then, all of these munias took off and flew towards western direction. Just then, a Shikra attacked it from south in an almost 90-degree tangent to their flight path. Shikra did hit one of the 5 munias that were quick enough to maneuver and change the path. Was witnessing all this that happened in a matter of second while standing in the paddy field path.
The bird that was hit fell down in the paddy field and was flapping its wet wings. The field was filled with water for growing paddy crops, which were laid out in neat rows and were strutting out of water like short grasses (about a feet tall). Instinctively, I moved and tried to enter into the damp paddy field to save the possibly wounded bird.
However, in the next second or so, the shikra did a wonderful U-turn in mid-air and swooped down on to the struggling bird, picked it in its talons and flew to another path between the fields, which was about 30 meters from the spot where I was standing. Perhaps it was catching its breath. After all, shikra is a falcon and these raptors are cheetahs amongst birds, but many times faster and more efficient! After about half a minute, the pale colored shikra took off with the dark colored prey in its talons.