Latest Birds of prey Stories
DENVER (AP) - The Denver Zoo has a newly hatched Andean condor, only the second condor to hatch at a zoo anywhere in the world over the past year, zoo officials said Thursday.The Denver condor, a male, hatched May 13. He and his parents are the zoo's only condors.Andean condors are an endangered species and came close to extinction in the 1970s, the zoo said. There are estimated to be only a few thousand of the giant birds in the wild, while 74 live in captivity in North America.When Denver's...
DOI LANG, Thailand - It seemed like a good idea: fly a rare vulture from Thailand back to its native Mongolia. Thai Airways agreed to transport the bird and nature lovers rallied to the cause.But fears of bird flu thwarted the flight, and the vulture was freed in northern Thailand on Thursday, thousands of miles from home. China and South Korea refused to let the bird be flown through their capitals, despite tests showing it did not have bird flu.The cinereous vulture - nicknamed Anakin after...
BANGKOK, Thailand -- The next time you take a Thai Airways flight to China, a passenger with a wingspan of 9.2 feet and a taste for rotting carcasses may also be on board. The country's national carrier announced Wednesday that it will transport a juvenile cinereous vulture to Beijing on March 21 to help return the rare bird to its natural environment in Mongolia.The vulture - normally not found in Thailand - has been nursed back to health by veterinarians at Kasetsart University in Bangkok,...
TUCSON, Ariz. -- A university study shows the population of a tiny endangered owl in northern Mexico has declined by an estimated 26 percent over the last seven years, a finding that environmentalists said bolsters their arguments for greater protection for the bird in Arizona.Annual surveys by a scientist show the birds are continuing to decline in numbers, although there have been some years with rebounds, according to the University of Arizona study."There's been some variation in...
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Researchers are catching and banding tiny owls to learn more about their comings and goings through Indiana. One thing they've learned is that there are more Northern saw-whet owls than once was thought. Some 135 of the little raptors were counted in 2003, up from about 20 per year in the 1980s and '90s.And researchers are hoping to find more of the birds in Yellowwood State Forest in southern Indiana and other sites around the state during the annual Christmas Bird...
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has banned the production and sale of an anti-inflammatory drug used in cattle that is poisoning the country's vultures one step up the food chain. Vultures fulfil a vital role, stripping down animal carcasses that would otherwise slowly rot and attract disease-spreading feral dogs and vermin. But the number of South Asia's Oriental white-backed, long-billed and slender-billed vultures has plummeted more than 97 percent over 15 years, which scientists say is...
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Conservation groups have sued to stop the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from removing a tiny desert owl from the endangered species list.The cactus ferruginous pygmy owl is only about 6 inches long and weighs in at less than 3 ounces, but has been at the center of a battle between environmentalists and developers for more than a decade. It is scheduled to officially be taken off the list Monday.The Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife filed suit in...
LONDON -- Scientists have offered a ray of hope to Asian vultures being wiped out in India after eating the corpses of cattle treated with a common anti-inflammatory drug.And they called on the Indian government, which has already banned the use of the drug diclofenac, to intensify a captive breeding program for threatened Oriental white-backed, long-billed and slender-billed vultures.Writing on Tuesday in the journal PLoS Biology, the scientists from Britain, India, South Africa and Namibia...
By Steve Ginsburg BEAVER CREEK, Colorado (Reuters) - American Daron Rahlves exacted a measure of revenge on compatriot Bode Miller, reversing the order of last year's downhill at Beaver Creek. Rahlves finished first on a fog-shrouded Birds of Prey course on Friday, edging runner-up Miller by just 0.27 seconds. "Last year I wanted to step up and win back-to-back races," said Rahlves, who won the 2003 downhill at Beaver Creek. "That would have been pretty impressive. I gave it all I had...
BEAVER CREEK, Colorado (Reuters) - The second day of training for the men's World Cup downhill was canceled on Wednesday as snow blanketed the Birds of Prey course. Scattered snow showers with blustery winds were expected to remain in the area at least until Thursday, the opening day of the four-day competition. Austria's Christoph Gruber was fastest during Tuesday's first training day, completing the course in 1:44.45 ahead of Norway's Bjarne Solbakken and Fritz Strobl of Austria. The...
Latest Birds of prey Reference Libraries
This bird of prey is known more as a pigeon hawk. The Merlin is from the Northern Hemisphere with some migrating to subtropical and northern tropical areas during the winter. There has also been a discovery that there are two different, very distinct, species: the North American and the Eurasian. The North American Merlin was first described by a Swede taxonomist, Carl Linnaeus. The Merlin is between 9 and 13 inches long with a wingspan of 20-29 inches. The Merlin is an exceptionally...
The White-throated Hawk (Buteo albigula), is a bird of prey belonging to the family Accipitridae, which includes hawks, eagles and Old World vultures. In British usage, it would be called a buzzard rather than a true hawk. It is a rather small Buteo, 42 to 45 cm in length. It lives in the Andes mountains of South America and ranges down to the coast in the O’Higgins region of Chile, favoring wooded areas. It’s closely related to the more widely distributed Short-tailed Hawk and was...
The Laughing Falcon (Herpetotheres cachinnans), also known as the Snake Hawk (erroneously, since it’s not a hawk), is a medium-sized bird of prey belonging to the falcon family Falconidae, the only member of the genus Herpetotheres. This Neotropical species is an expert snake-eater. Its common and scientific names are both in reference to its distinctive voice. The English name comes from its loud voice, as does the specific name cachinnans, which is Latin for “laughing aloud” or...
The Greater Yellow-Headed Vulture (cathartes melambrotus) is also known as the Forest Vulture, it is a species of bird in the New World Vulture family Cathartidae. It was considered to be the same species as the Lesser Yellow-Headed Vulture until they were split in 1964. It is found in South America in tropical moist lowland forest. It is a fairly large bird, with a wingspan of 65 to 70 inches, a weight of 3.6 pounds and a body length of 25 to 30 inches. The body plumage is black, and the...
White-tailed Hawks are found in tropical or subtropical environments across the Americas. This bird is a large bird of prey species. It is close to the size of the related Swainson’s and Red-tailed Hawks. The average measurements of this bird fall a little bit ahead of the first and a little bit behind the latter. It can be up to 17 to 24 inches in length, and its wingspan can be up to 46 to 56 inches. A body mass of 1.9 to 2.7 pounds was recorded in B. a. hysopodius and 1.91 to 2.2 pounds...
