Falcon vs hawk11/30/2023 With its reputation as a fearless aggressor, it is little wonder that the New Zealand falcon (called the spar‑ row hawk, bush hawk or quail hawk by European colonists) has been, and in some cases still is, regarded as an unwanted pest by such people as farmers and pigeon fanciers. Billy was being decapitated in a nearby tree.Īnother falcon took 19 pigeons in two weeks, before it was caught in a chookhouse munching on a hen. “What’s wrong, Billy?” she called, noticing the bird acting strangely. One tale concerns an Otaki woman who had let her pet cockatiel out of its cage while she did some gardening. Tales of prize pullets and family pets being dispatched by marauding falcons are numerous, and impressive. The falcon’s dedication to the art of hunting is almost legendary. Their killing repertoire includes prolonged chases through dense bush, contour-hugging prey searches, screaming dives (‘ stoops’) and surprise attacks, where-prey are plucked out of the sky literally without knowing what hit them. Falcons are intelligent and adaptable hunters, varying their technique according to the opportunity at hand. It spurns carrion, preferring to take its meat fresh often on the wing. Of all the birds in the New Zealand bush, karearea, the falcon, is supreme in aerial mastery and aerobatics.Ĭapable of outflying a small aircraft (a diving falcon reaches speeds of up to 200kph), this Red Baron of the southern skies is also a consummate predator. When english priest and poet Gerard Manley Hopkins penned his tribute to The Windhover he could just as easily have been writing about the New Zealand falcon. Written by Kennedy Warne Photographed by Ross Hyde
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