Large prey items of birds of prey (1 Viewer)

Sangahyando.
My apologies, Golden Eagles have been observed and recorded in the Scottish Highland taking most British BoP no doubt this does not include WTE, but when the book I am referring to was wrote WTE were still quite rare, this behaviour was observed by the author/naturalist Mike Tomkies.

Damian

Not a bird of prey but the most insane predator-prey battle I have ever seen was a Cormorant trying to catch a full-grown Pike:

I noticed a commotion in the water; looked and saw a cormorant surfaced with a truly massive Pike partly gripped in its bill - the Cormorant had only managed to grip the Pike's head and was struggling trying to pull the rest of it out of the water (it never managed to pull out more than half the fish). I have no idea what it intended to do next as the Pike was much wider than the Comorant's neck and must have weighed a fair fraction of the Comorant's weight.

The result was a lot of splashing and thrashing, the Comorant being pulled under twice and finally (sensibly) letting go of the Pike and swimming away.

auchinbowie said:

Right on! Do you remember the tv documentary which advised that Eagle Owls snatched babies from their prams when their main food source, the pet moggie, was scarce? Must be true!

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Of course! And let's not forget those pesky Red Kites that also try this. Seems a good idea really - population control at its most natural!

Then there was the famous film by the late Felix Rodrigues de la Fuente of a golden eagle knocking off a cliff a full size mountain goat and then following it down until it hit the ground below,It then fed on the animal,spectacular filming in the 1970's.,,Eddy