Everyone knows that eagles are proud birds. And there are reasons for that. These winged predators are common throughout the world. Consider some of the outstanding species of the eagle family.
Crested eagles - killer birds!
The most powerful and formidable feathered predators of an eagle tribe are some species of giant crested eagles. They live in tropical African and South American forests. For example, a harpy living in South America weighs up to ... 8 kilograms, while the length of its body reaches a meter! It is this feathered predator that has the longest, most powerful and merciless claws in the whole world!
It seems unbelievable, but monkeys and large mammals are a favorite treat of harpies and other crested eagles: they steal piglets, dogs from villages, strangle sloths and other animals. In Africa, these birds exterminate antelopes, jackals and baboons. Crested eagles are smart birds. They hunt only from ambush, being for a long time in complete stillness in anticipation of potential prey. These birds are merciless and cold-blooded!
The bird of prey is the golden eagle!
Of course, golden eagles are inferior in size to harpies, but they are the most powerful and predatory representatives of the eagle family in the entire Northern hemisphere of the Earth. No wonder it is the golden eagle that personifies the greatness of the clan of feathered predators.
The habitat of this bird is quite large. The golden eagle is able to adapt to nesting in the most diverse conditions for existence - from forest marshes and swamps to alpine highlands. All eagles are birds with serious requests for life. So the golden eagle for hunting needs open and vast air and terrestrial spaces, and for nesting and resting - rocks or tall trees.
The most famous way of hunting a golden eagle is to closely track prey in a soaring flight at great altitude, and then a lightning attack from the sky. Zoologists simply admire this sight: a predator folds its wings and throws a stone at its prey. Of course, there is no question of any chance of survival on the part of the victim. Deer, roe deer, calves, foxes, hares, ground squirrels, groundhogs and other animals become prey for golden eagles.
Eagles and gophers
One of the phenomenal abilities of all eagles is to look for gophers where they are not. For example, a steppe or white eagle does a good job of this . The bird often catches ground squirrels in an ambush, which, in turn, is located right next to the burrows of rodents. A predator can lie for hours behind some tubercle, waiting for its favorite treat. As soon as the rodent moves away from its mink, the bird rushes at it with lightning speed. The eagle runs awkwardly, throws it from side to side. In appearance, this seems like a real shame for a representative of a solid eagle family, however, the predator himself does not care at all about someone else's opinion about him. The main thing is to catch the treasured gopher!
But gophers sometimes also do not miss. They recognize feathered predators by their silhouette in the sky. As soon as they see him, right there, bulging their eyes, rush to the saving hole, anxiously peeping.