I’ve showed videos of raptors flying through small spaces before, but this one is pretty remarkable. Do not underestimate the abilities of any animal!
Modern dinosaurs' flight dexterity is astounding https://t.co/VHaFcTXPLV (Image: Sjors Van de Wiel) pic.twitter.com/veljaFVFOm
— Kyle Hill (@Sci_Phile) September 18, 2015
h/t: Grania
I would think it wrong, cruel, to carry a raptor upside down by its jesses –
If anybody here has not yet read H is for Hawk…they are missing a beautiful book.
Loved that book. Taught me all the terminology too.
Finished it a few weeks ago. It was lovely.
I just ordered it from Amazon. Thanks for the reminder, I forgot about this one.
“Do not underestimate the abilities of any animal!”
Including the abilities of those two (young) human animals not to flinch as Rappy flies between them.
Magnificent!
Bah, perhaps I’m an old fogie but I still say that birds are no more dinosaurs than mammals are reptiles… “Dinosaurs” is not a clade!
Beautiful birds, though.
They are not a monophyletic group? Well, they are divided into two groups, the Saurischia and the Ornithischia, but I thought they shared a common ancestry that would also be described as a dinosaur.
Why not refer to them as archosauromorphs then, or as amniotes? Why don’t people say, “Look at those flying sarcopterygian fishes!”
Birds are more than cool enough without trying to jazz them up by calling them dinosaurs.
Well, they are those things too, but we upright walking synapsid reptiles are a strange lot.
Placing birds AS dinosaurs depends on the data you are using. Most people seem to like the data set that lets us say that birds are dinosaurs and totally ignore those that point out errors in the analyses. This has gotten into the mindset of popular magazines like Nature and textbook writers. It is a bit sad.
‘those that point out errors’ – you mean Feduccia et al.? Worth totally ignoring, on this question.
Is there any logical difference between saying “birds evolved from dinosaurs” and “birds are dinosaurs”? Surely the former is not seriously disputed at this point? Denialists should be banned … 😁
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I think Jerry would not be proud of this level of argument on his website.
I am pretty sure Jerry would not approve of this level of argument. I guess you have some thing about Feduccia. Why do you ignore others that have some valid points about the analyses?? There is data that supports a different conclusion. No scientific question is ever closed.
I think that many birds look very similar to their dinosaur ancestors, making the comparison not so very valid. Unless you’re going to define dinosaurs as featherless, which doesn’t seem likely to work very well.
I used to debate with an old earth creationist/IDer (who insisted he wasn’t a creationist) who loved referring to birds as dinosaurs because it allowed him to claim that as an example of micro-evolution. So I would refer to humans as air-breathing fish, another example of micro-evolution.
Now that’s some precision flying!
I bet the bird brushed its wings against the people. I’ve had a vulture brush me with its wingtips; a similar venue, me sitting on the aisle, the bird flying from the one end to the other.
Must be something special to work with such beautiful animals.
b&
Yeah, my eyes were actually fixed on their faces, watching for the irresistable smile after it passed between them…
I hope you weren’t at a funeral parlor.
Now there’s a thought. Lift the lid on the casket, a vulture emerges and flies down the isle brushing past our protagonist. The candles flicker while on the organ, the Bach cantata reaches a climax. Camera zooms in to an empty casket.
I love the way you took that and ran with it! 😀
I prefer to fly! 😉
I can only wing it, myself.
T H White’s The Goshawk is a damn good read if you’re into man and raptor.
Ah, then you definitely need to read H is for Hawk! MacDonald uses White’s book as a touchstone throughout!
I don’t think I could read it now, since I read H is for Hawk, and she spends a lot of time basically pointing out how much T.H. White was screwing it up.
It would certainly give one a different perspective to start with!
H is for Hawk is close up there with The Peregrine, by J. A. Baker, as a book about raptors. Baker’s book is in fact the best nature book I’ve ever read (H is for Hawk is less focused on nature and more on human relationships). Both are superb.
How old were you when you first read The Peregrine, Jerry, if you don’t mind me asking?
*close italics after “peregrine” of course*
Now lets see this with Dolly Parton (as one of the human pillars).
Based on her age, that just might work.
You’re even worse than me! 😀
Well, she’s my age, so I’d know.
I’m nearly there myself. Rather fond of the ol’ gal, actually.
Great sense of humor.
Esp. when poking fun at herself. Used to enjoy her exchanges with Johnny Carson.
I saw a bird do something I hadn’t seen before, just the other day.
I think they were pigeons, but may have been seagulls, both abundant here and I was captured by the performance.
One bird, the same size as the other, tailgated the one I front in a number swoops, direction changes and orientation varieties, just like you see when birds are chasing one another. However!
The interesting thing, the thing that caught my eye, was that while the bird in front was flapping its wings, as one would expect, the trailing bird did not flap once.
There were speed changes, elevation changes, direction and attitude changes, quite a significant flight all up.
Somehow the trailing bird must have used the vortexes from the leading bird. How it new this and why I don’t know. It maintained a close consistent distance as well.
It was amazing.
I drive machinery on the wharves, I’m 12.5 meters high up and get to see birds zooming around a lot.
Never seen anything like it before.
Although, elsewhere, I have seen cockatoos do a barrel roll and a loop de loop.
It’s hard to believe the trailing bird could use the vortex for more that a couple of seconds in level flight. Wouldn’t it catch a gust and slow a bit and drop behind? It could be the trailing bird was a swallow which beats it’s wings very quickly. Quick enough to avoid detection from your perch.
It is hard to believe. But true. The wing span of the birds was similar so no not a swift or anything like that. We don’t have them around here either.
I am pretty sure it was a pigeon but maybe a seagull. Seagulls are prolific because I am near the sea, at work, and pigeons sometimes are prolific when a container of grain breaks open or leaks a little bit.
The following bird stayed very close at all times, maybe within one wingspan.
I have done some flying training up to first solo, I love flight and flying and birds. So I watch them all the time, it was very unusual.
I’ve heard that gulls kill and eat smaller birds like pigeons. Do you ever witness that?
I forgot to say, I think the overall flight length was at least 200 meters, that’s from when I noticed. They flew below me and then up a bit higher and then down to near the ground, although I didn’t see them land.
So the overall flight may have been descent but, as I say It was note worthy. I watch them fly all the time under me and over me.
It’s interesting in summer sometimes when a lot of insects are out, with our big light towers, at night, attracting them, watching birds going hither and thither.
One last thing, seagulls will swoop you during nesting but will not touch you.
Magpies on the other hand will peck you in the head.
It looks like a Harris Hawk (Parabuteo unicinctus). Wonderful bird.
My beloved and I went falconing a couple of years back in the Paek District of the UK, and flew a Harris Hawk (among other birds – got to hold a Peregrine too, but sadly couldn’t fly it as they take a lot of skill).
They are *awesomely cool* flying death-monsters and you feel like the Beastmaster with a one on your arm.
On a side note, if you want to get a Harris Hawk to fly you *really* have to chuck them hard or they won’t let go. I remember thinking that you had to throw them like you would a grenade!
On a nature walk I ended up with the guide’s Harris hawk landing unexpectedly on my bare fiat. It gripped quite firmly, puckering my skin, but not enough to draw blood.
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Whoa, that might have been as scary as the time someone dropped a tarantula in my lap!
I wasn’t scared at all. More worried that it would go for me with its beak, but knowing that I should probably keep as still as possible until the guide could take it onto her gauntleted hand.
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I’d think it’d be really neat, actually. The bird isn’t going to start ripping your hand to shreds; it’s just going to use however much grip it needs to stabilize itself. It’s lightweight and with good balance, so, at worst, you’ll get the same kinds of scratches you might when going blackberrying or playing pattycake with a cat. And it’s not going to pick you for a perch if it thinks you’re a threat, so there’s no worry about being attacked. So I’d ignore the prickles, say, “Hello!” and offer to scratch its neck by way of expressing thanks for its decision to grace me with its presence. (Both chickens and cockatoos, at the least, like the same sort of back-of-the-head neck scratch as cats and dogs do, so I’m guessing a friendly raptor might as well — and you should be able to read body language to tell if not.)
b&
Well, I did try to enjoy the moment. But that beak did look rather wicked. And the guide was v keen to retrieve her bird.
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I bet the guide was probably more worried that you’d panic and hurt the bird, with a footnote that you’d get a minor scratch from the talons and similarly panic (or sue, if the States) over a worry about infection.
I’m sure not because of anything you did, of course.
b&
Ah, Ben, I think you’re being a bit too starry eyed here. Hawks are never really “tame” in the sense of our pets. Chickens & parrots are also social birds that are can transfer some of that social impetus to their pet humans.
And hawk talons can be fearsome–there’s a reason their keepers wear those leather gauntlets!
I can testify that when a Harris Hawk lands to get prey (such as the chick-head you might be holding in your glove hand) they attack with force and *crush* you with their grip! I could feel the crush and the talons even through the glove!
Remember, the bird had already landed on Ant’s wrist and was not, in fact, flaying his flesh from the bone.
I wouldn’t invite an unknown bird to alight on me. But if it did so without incident, I’d be happy to repay the display of trust with an offering of friendship.
b&
Have at it!
😀
Coincidentally enough, as I type, there’s a ten-pound cat on my shoulders, and his grip is potentially as devastating as an hawk’s…my shoulders are always scratched up just from him maintaining balance, as are my hands (his favorite toys). That might have something to do with my attitude…minor bloodshed is a small price to pay for these things….
b&
“and his grip is potentially as devastating as an hawk’s…”
Not really…
Apologies in advance for all html screw-ups.
Well, okay, “grip” wasn’t the best word. But a cat pulling inwards with front claws while kicking with its rear can eviscerate at least as well as a raptor — and it’s my neck Baihu wraps himself around.
Both can be either deadly or delicate depending on disposition. If that hawk had it in for Ant, it wouldn’t have alighted; it’d have gone straight for his eyes — assuming it didn’t start with a threat display. But a bird that lives with humans casually doing the normal things birds that live with humans do around humans…it’s not going to intentionally cause harm, and incidental harm is going to be minor and not worth worrying about.
b&
P.S. He’s baaaaaaack…on my shoulders…widening the holes in my shirt…. b&