I can’t brain today, so hold on till tomorrow if you want substance. Today: animals!
Although I don’t follow Twi**er, Matthew Cobb does, and sent me this tw**t. If ever a raptor was adorable, it’s this one, tw**ted by Ziya Tong, a Canadian science presenter:
When you want to try falconry but you're just not quiiite ready; try a pygmy falcon!
[photo: Nathan Rupert] pic.twitter.com/ys4aBXF4rl
— Earthling (@ziyatong) February 15, 2016
I had no idea there were pygmy falcons, but indeed there are—in southern and eastern Africa. The species is Polihierax semitorquatus, and Wikipedia says it preys on small mammals, small reptiles, and insects. They have a disjunct distribution (below) and tend to nest in empty weaver nests or tree cavities:
Below is a video showing how small they are. It’s not clear whether, as the tw**t above implies, they can actually be trained to hunt by humans. There’s a video of one on a leash pouncing on a confined bird and eating it alive, but that’s not falconry, and it’s pretty gruesome.
Wow, does anyone ever add up how many new things they learn on this site? A killer in such a small package.
Squee! Which, ironically, is the cry they make just before they kill something.
“You lookin’ at me?”
Awwwwwww…that is so cute!
But she still has to wear the gloves though. I bet that grip on naked flesh, however small, could still ruin your whole day.
Behold! The Power of Cute!
And yet it’s a true predator, nature never fails to amaze me!
I wonder what kind of seeds it ate before Eve ate the apple? Ahem….
Unfortunately (or fortunately if you are squeamish) the bird eating link to YouTube has been taken down as having violated the TOS because of violence, etc.
Let’s hope the Chinese don’t start thinking they’re “cute”; they’ll buy up everyone of them and make a fortune for poachers, just like they’ve done recently with the pygmy marmoset.
W.B. Yeats would be pleased to find that the falcon can at last hear the falconer.
I remember a previous video posted here displaying the amazingly tight spaces that raptors could maneuver through in flight. I’ll bet this little guy could beat even those!
Per Wikipedia: Pygmy Falcon – 19-20 cm in length. American Kestrel – 19-21 cm. And it looks to me like any difference would be in tail-length. I’ll bet the Africans would be just as thrilled by our little falcon. 🙂
Darling little bird!
By comparison, the American Robin is listed as 23-28 cm.
Digging the article on falconry but had an unrelated question Jerry – is there a special reason to block out several letters in the words “Twitter” and Tweet” in your post? Was just curious.
Carl Kruse
Humor. Jerry is communicating his dislike for twitter in a humorous way. It is also a bit of a laugh at, and inspired by, the habit some believers have of blocking out characters in the word God (i.e. G*d) or Yahweh (i.e. Y*hw*h) because of religious superstitions.