All species › Birds of prey
Birds of prey | Accipitriformes
Roofvogels | Rapaces diurnas
Day-hunting birds of prey with a strongly hooked bill whose base is set in a patch of waxy skin, the cere, in which the nostrils open. Prey is seized with the foot and killed with the sharp curved talons; the bill comes into play only afterwards, to tear the meat apart. The eyes are large and exceptionally sharp, in most species the female is clearly larger than the male, and indigestible remains such as fur and splinters of bone are cast up again as a pellet. In southern Africa the order holds three families: the hawks and eagles, taking in vultures, eagles, buzzards, harriers and sparrowhawks; the Osprey; and the Secretarybird, the only species in its family, taxonomically isolated, and with its long walking legs and crane-like outline standing well outside the usual raptor shape. Falcons and owls live in much the same way but are placed in other orders in this classification.
Families in this order
- Secretarybird | Sagittariidae1 speciesA single species, the only living member of this family, without close relatives and standing entirely isolated within the order of birds of prey. The bill, cere and large eyes are those of a raptor, but the rest of the build is not: the bird stands on bare walking legs armoured with large scales, to well over a metre in height, and the toes are short and blunt with short, barely curved claws — a foot for striking, not for grasping. Food is sought on foot, in daily marches of tens of kilometres across grassland and open savanna, flushing grasshoppers, lizards, rodents and snakes and killing them against the ground with a very fast, powerful kick; small prey is swallowed whole. The head carries a bare orange-red mask and a crest of long, black-tipped nape feathers that is raised in excitement. The wings are long and broad with black flight feathers and the two central tail feathers project far beyond the rest; for all its walking legs the bird soars readily and at length. The nest is a broad platform of sticks on top of a flat-crowned thorn tree, used year after year.
- Hawks, eagles and kites | Accipitridae54 speciesAll members share the same equipment: a hooked bill without the tooth falcons carry in the cutting edge, a powerful four-toed foot with sharp talons for holding prey or carrion, and broad wings with spread primary tips for gaining height on thermals, the tail serving as a rudder. They build a stick nest or take over someone else's, and lay small clutches of one to a few eggs, incubated mainly by the female while the male brings in the food. The eggs hatch one after another, so the young differ in size; they are fed on torn-off scraps and do not fledge for weeks. After that they wear a distinct juvenile plumage for one or more years, which makes putting a name to a bird harder in this family than in most other groups.
- Ospreys | Pandionidae1 speciesA single species, spread over almost the whole world and wholly geared to catching fish. The outer toe can be turned backwards so that the prey is clamped between two toes in front and two behind, and the underside of the toes is covered in spiny scales that hold the slippery body; the talons are equal in length and strongly curved, the nostrils can be closed, and the dense oily plumage sheds water. The wings are long and kinked at the wrist, which allows the bird to hover: it drops feet first into the water, works its way out again, and carries the fish head forward, aligned with the body. The nest is a great heap of sticks on top of a tree, mast or crag, added to year after year.