Birds with prey

It is always smoothing special to capture the moment of aftereffect of a hunt - the nature at its rawest and most exposed. It happens very rarely, requires a lot of patience, and a lot of just plain luck. This post is a compilation of such moments from the past several years.

The most graceful and imposing of US birds of prey like fish. Here we have an Osprey in the middle of its lunch.


Bald Eagles are mainly fish-eaters too. This one caught a trout in the Yellowstone river.


Kestrels are the smallest falcons in the world. Being small, their main prey is insects. This female kestrel was having a grasshopper for dinner in the Meadowlands.


This is anther type of a small falcon called Merlin. I caught him hunting at Fort Tilden in Queens in October. Here it is with a freshly captured yellowthroat.


Another Merlin, deconstructing a starling.


Moving on to hawks, the next two pictures are of a Cooper's Hawk in Cape Cod back in January. Cooper's are bird-hunting hawks that get along well with human habitats. This one was at the beach, where it caught a savannah sparrow (after a long and dramatic chase through the bushes).




Northern Harriers come down to the mainland US in the winter. Their main prey is mice and voles. This female caught a field mouse and was about to eat it when I flushed it.


Northern Harriers hunt during the day. When they are done, their place is taken by the Short-Eared Owls. During dusk and dawn hours, the two species interact. Most of the time, like in this picture, the harriers try to mug the owls and steal their prey.