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Scary Big Bird!
Topic Started: Aug 15 2013, 07:40 AM (287 Views)
Alli
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Mistress, House of Cats
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This is some BIG BIRD
Very Scary look at the talons



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Philippine Monkey Eating Eagle
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FuzzyO
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Gorgeous. I find those huge raptors fascinating.
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campy
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Handyman Extraordinaire
FuzzyO
Aug 15 2013, 10:30 AM
Gorgeous. I find those huge raptors fascinating.
Me too Fuzzy O.

But what does that say about our personalities?

I visited a place called Hawk Ridge in Duluth, Minnesota.

Every year in the fall hundreds of raptors gather there to rest up after traversing the Lake Superior shoreline on their migration.

Apparently there are only two places in the U.S. like it.

They circle overhead in flocks and when they land they are captured and banded.

It was a fascinating adventure.

Edited by campy, Aug 15 2013, 10:52 AM.
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Kahu
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Well, we're all rather glad this fellow is flying around these days .... Haast's Eagle.

This giant endemic eagle was the largest predator among New Zealand's prehistoric fauna. It is the largest, heaviest eagle species yet described, weighing up to 17.8 kg and had a wingspan up to 3 metres. Near-complete skeleton finds show that it had the body and wings of a giant eagle, legs and bill larger and stronger than the largest living vulture species, and feet and claws as big as a modern day tiger's. These characteristics made it the top predator in prehistoric South Island terrestrial ecosystems. Like the iconic moa, Haast's eagle evolved through - and survived - multiple glacial periods, when larger body size would have increased survival chances. The species was named after Julius von Haast, first director of Canterbury Museum.

Morphological study suggests it specialised in hunting moa up to the size and weight of adult South Island giant moa (up to 3.6 m and 249 kg). Study of near-complete skeleton finds suggests it dived on its moa prey from a high isolated treetop perch or rocky outcrop in open terrain. Bone remains show it would have been able to kill moa by flying into their hind quarters and grappling the moa with its large feet and talons before crushing the moa's skull with an extremely powerful grip. Haast's eagle became extinct 500-600 years ago, around the same time that New Zealand's moa species became extinct. Centuries-old cave drawings of huge eagle-like birds and finds of Haast's eagle bone tools in middens strongly suggest it was known to Maori, and may have been hunted. Maori oral tradition records huge birds called "pouakai" and "hokioi" that were possibly inspired by it. Haast's eagle was large enough to attack human children, as described in Maori oral tradition.
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Haast's Eagle preyed mainly on the giant moa ...

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Moa were superlative birds, and the South Island giant moa was the biggest of them all. Adult females stood up to 2 metres high at the back, and could reach foliage up to 3.6 metres off the ground, making them the tallest bird species known. It was one of two species of giant moa, the other being the smaller North Island species, which are placed in a separate family from the two families containing the seven smaller moa species. All nine moa were unique among birds in having no trace of wing bones. They were the dominant New Zealand land vertebrates, exhibiting far greater adaptive radiation than other New Zealand landbirds. Regrettably, all were extinct within a few centuries of human arrival.
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Edited by Kahu, Aug 15 2013, 11:12 AM.
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Trotsky
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Big City Boy
Sounds like the two guys in the first pictures may soon be candidates for a Darwin Award.
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Bitsy
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I find them heart-stopping terrifying; probably due to an early experience with an angry rooster. Hitchcock added to that fear and HDO reinforced it with The Girl. :sigh:
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Trotsky
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Big City Boy
I spent a couple weeks on a farm as a pre-schooler. I loved my dart gun, the kind with a suction cup on the end. So I shot this rooster in play and the friggen thing almost killed me. All I saw was a hale of feathers as the bastard kept knocking me over and tearing at me.

(They must have been training the bird for cock fighting.)

ps...I never feel guilty eating chicken,
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