Subject: Re: Raptor Sightings
Date: Nov 30 20:09:02 1998
From: Michael Price - mprice at mindlink.bc.ca


Hi Tweets,

Don Baccus writes:

>When visiting some raptor bander friends a few years ago, they had
>a merlin come into their mistnets that had a headless Townsend's
>warbler in its talons. It doesn't take a whole lot of imagination
>to visualize blood getting on a merlin's breast if it decapitates
>a small bird that's still alive, though this particular merlin didn't
>have any blood on its breast.

Do falcons typically decapitate small prey in flight? I've seen Peregrine
Falcons Falco peregrinus flying quite high up do this to small Calidris
shorebirds they've just caught.

Why would they do this, considering that the brains contain the richest
complex-protein densities in the bird's body, and that they crack the skull
of larger prey to eat the brains? Seems odd they'd deliberately toss away
the best parts of a smaller bird.

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net

"She's psychic....we've decided to find it charming."
--Frasier