The Life of Birds those birds whose sustenance comes from flesh and their methods of hunting. In New Zealand, Attenborough observes keas, parrots that do not eat meat exclusively, raiding a shearwater's burrow for a chick. However, it is the dedicated birds of prey, such as owls, buzzards, eagles, falcons and vultures, to which much of the programme is devoted. In order to spot and pursue their victims, senses of sight and hearing are very acute. Vultures are the exception, in that they eat what others have left, and once a carcass is found, so many birds descend on it that the carrion seems
Hawking (birds) for certain kinds of aerial insect as a food source seems to correlate with gregarious or colonial behavior versus territoriality. For birds that take advantage of swarming insects, which are by nature found in local concentrations, colonial breeding can be a successful strategy. An example is the cliff swallow of western North America. Its relative the barn swallow hunts larger, non-swarming insects, and is more solitary. Certain neotropical tyrant flycatchers will join mixed-species foraging flocks, as will some Asian drongos. Such flocks stir up flying insects, which can then be picked off in quick sallies. Hawking (birds) Hawking is a