African Harrier-Hawk trying to get nestlings out of a weaver nest

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cr_wildlife

cr_wildlife

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I started working on my images from a recent trip to Kenya today. We spent a few days at the Borana Conservancy. This was simply an amazing place. We were frequently placed in the difficult situation of having to choose between simultaneous remarkable photo opportunities. This image was taken while we were watching a pack of 17 African Wild Dogs, a pretty rare sight. As we were watching the canines, we noticed a disturbance in the trees to our right. Sure enough, an African Harrier-Hawk was flapping its wings as it tried to both hold on to a weaver nest and to reach inside with one of its talons to extract a nestling. These raptors have specially adapted loose joints in their legs that allows them to reach into nest cavities for prey. I chose to take a break from the dogs and spent some time on the hawk. Here is one of the images.
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Great image and very interesting information. Each time I've visited Africa I wanted to find weavers. Unfortunately the guides only focused on the popular touristy subjects. I found the many types of weaver birds very interesting. I didn't know about the harrier-hawk adaptations to extracting the young birds. Thanks for such a great image that tells the story.
 
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Butlerkid said:
Great image and very interesting information. Each time I've visited Africa I wanted to find weavers. Unfortunately the guides only focused on the popular touristy subjects. I found the many types of weaver birds very interesting. I didn't know about the harrier-hawk adaptations to extracting the young birds. Thanks for such a great image that tells the story.
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Thank you, Karen! I share your frustration with the guides in Africa only wanting to show us the big stuff, On my last trip, we went by ourselves and had a discussion with the guide about our interests. It helped.
 
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Jmaes said:
Fantastic shot of a beautiful bird!

This would definitely draw my attention (over watching wild dogs) as well.
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Thank you very much. The problem was, of course, that African Wild Dogs are an endangered species and rarely seen, let alone seen in a group of 17!
 
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