After the creation of the world, the God ordered all birds to dig an individual well for each of them to wash there. Everyone obeyed, apart from the buzzard who was absent at the moment. When it finally arrived it decided to use trickery and get a well for free. The buzzard suggested the crow […]
Category: Accipitriformes
Bird stories, Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus)
The nomadic Bedouin of the Sinai Peninsula believed that if the body of an Egyptian Vulture was buried for forty days, then dug up and boiled until all of the flesh had dissolved, a single bone would stick up among the others, signifying that it held great power. All that was required to win the […]
Bird stories, Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus)
The Buryat people of Siberia say that the gods first brought the vulture to the world for a very specific purpose. After the deities had created the first people, they sent a vulture to protect them from any harm that might befall them at the hands of evil spirits. But the people didn’t know of […]
Bird stories, Himalayan Vulture (Gyps himalayensis)
An old and very odd legend of the Kirghiz tells of the treasures that awaited those who plundered a Himalayan Griffon nest. It was said that after an appropriate period of incubation, the Griffon’s egg hatches – and an axe emerges from the shell. Not just any axe; an axe that can cleave anything on […]
Bird stories, Cape Vulture (Gyps coprotheres)
To African people the vulture was the symbol of fertility. It was the grandmother who laid many eggs according to one story. Eggs out of which emerge not little vultures, but any kind of animal that there is on earth. Some tribes believe that the vulture was the original great earth mother. And our people […]
Bird stories, Brahminy Kite (Haliastur indus)
The Nage tribe of Indonesia believe the bapu spirits that reside atop the volcano Ebu Lobo assume the guise of a Brahminy Kite (jata) or a large, high-flying hawk (jata jawa) when searching for human victims, whom they characteristically kill in the form of spirit buffalo. The following fable is told by the Visayan tribe […]
Bird stories, the Black Kite (Milvus migrans)
The Betsimisaraka tribe of Madagascar tell a fable explaining why fowls scratch the earth, and why kites scream as they fly: A fowl borrowed a needle from a kite, but the needle being lost, the kite said, I am not contented with your losing my needle, so that is why the fowl scratches the ground, […]
Bird stories, Bateleur Terathopius ecaudatus
The Mbuti tribe believes that if a pregnant woman or her husband eat this bird, a baby with an extraordinary large head may be born to them. The Tembo tribe of the Congo consider the species as a cure. Its feathers and claws are used to cure benign epilepsy. For the medical treatment, feathers and […]
Energetic expenditure of male Ospreys provisioning natural and manipulated broods.
Western Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) Science Article 2 abstract This study examined the relationship between brood size and energetic expenditure of male Ospreys. The daily energetic expenditure (DEE) of male Ospreys, provisioning nestlings and providing post-fledging parental care, was estimated using detailed time-energy budgets. Factors affecting DEE were investigated, and DEE and the maximum rate of […]
Courtship Feeding And Osprey Reproduction
Western Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) Science Article 1 abstract A female Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) usually is fed exclusively by its mate between pair formation and egg-laying. Laying dates and courtship periods, but not clutch size, egg size, breeding success or female weight reserves, were correlated (negatively) with the prelaying feeding rates of 12 females breeding in […]