There are about 250 different species of the diurnal or day flying birds of prey and around 130 species of the nocturnal birds of prey or owls. (It's difficult to give exact numbers of species because not all taxonomists agree). These two taxa or groups are divided into families, and these families are usually put into a certain order, so we are going to follow that order in case you want to use other books to look up more information . The families are divided into smaller families and then into individual species.

Birds of prey have evolved to look differently, hunt in different ways at different quarry, and generally take advantage of the differing habitats of the world in which to survive. However they have similar points as well. Superb binocular vision, generally powerful grasping feet, in fact the name raptor means to seize or plunder. They usually live alone or in pairs, although some will live in groups. All feed on meat of some sort, from the tiniest of insects to the largest of mammals, although these are generally eaten as carrion. There are a very few that will feed on vegetable matter as well.

Diurnal birds of prey
(Scientific group name Falconiformes)

The New World Vultures
(Scientific family name cathartidae)

First of the families are the New World Vultures, you will see several species here at NBPC. This group contains the smallest of all the vultures and the largest - which incidentally is the largest flying bird as well. The American Black Vulture is the smallest, although not the lightest - a little black vulture to be found in many parts of the New World. The King Vulture is the most colorful of all the raptors, and the largest is the Andean Condor, weighing in at up to 28 lbs (over 12.5 Kg) and a wing span of nearly ten feet. There are seven species of New World Vulture and one of these, the Californian Condor was one of the rarest vultures in the world. This huge bird had diminished down to only 17 individuals left in the wild or captivity. Thanks to a breeding programme run initially by the San Diego Zoo and the LA Zoo and later joined by The Peregrine Fund, there are now over 150 of these birds, the number increases yearly, young are now being released into safe areas in the wild.

Like all vultures, the New World vultures have specialised in eating carrion (dead animals). Unusually for birds however, some of these American vultures have a sense of smell. With most of them it is only very weak and rudimentary, but the Turkey Vulture has a highly developed sense of smell, by flying slowly over the jungle canopy, this bird can find carcasses hidden by trees and the undergrowth only one hour after the animal has died. Other species of vultures have learned to follow the Turkey Vultures as a way to find food in thick cover. All the vultures are superb flyers and the smaller ones can soar for many hours on the tiniest of air currents.

The Osprey
(Scientific family name Pandionidae)

This species of bird has always been placed in its own individual family group. It is a very specialist feeder, although there are other raptors and owls that catch and eat fish, none specialises quite as much as the Osprey which hunts and feeds almost solely on live fish. They rarely eat carrion and only very occasionally eat anything other than fish. They are found in every continent around the world except Antarctica, living by inland waters, estuaries and coastal areas. Surprisingly although they are found so widely there is little variation, they are a little bigger or smaller depending on where they come from and the colour varies a little, but not significantly considering their range. They have a pronounced angle or crook to their wing shape when they fly which makes them easy to spot. Some of the populations migrate - the ones that come to the UK for example. Others stay on home territories and are more sedentary. They build large nests and lay one to three eggs. When hunting for fish they drop right into the water sometimes disappearing almost completely under water.

The Secretary Bird
(Scientific family name sagittariidae)

Like the Osprey this bird is the only one in its family and it is fairly obvious why - there is no other bird of prey that looks like it or behaves in the same way. Sometimes it is placed before the hawks and eagles and sometimes afterwards. Standing three feet high with legs like a heron this odd bird is found only in Africa below the tropic of cancer. It spends most of its time on the ground walking through the grasslands and bush looking for things to eat. It is famous for killing snakes by stamping them to death, however it actually catches relatively few snakes and the bulk of its quarry is grasshoppers and locusts. It will also eat other large insects, small mammals, birds especially young ones and ground living birds, eggs and the occasional tortoise. The Secretary Bird is a capable flier, with a wingspan of seven feet, and its long legs dangling out behind while it flies. It breeds at the end of the dry season so as to take advantage of all the food around during the wet season.

The Hawks and Eagles
(Scientific family name Accipitridae)

This commonly used title is a little misleading as this group covers hawks, eagles, kites, old world vultures, buzzards and many others. It's a huge group with 237 species under the scientific name Accipitridae. This group begins with bazas and kites. The bazas are very odd birds of prey, they are closely related to the kites, tend to be forest birds, live in Africa, South East Asia or Australia, they have fairly weak feet and beaks and they all eat insects, frogs or similar. The kites are probably best known in the UK for the Red Kite which is the largest of the family. The smallest is the tiny Pearl Kite which comes from South America and weighs only 80 - 100 grams. Most of the Kites feed on either insects, reptiles or small mammals. They all have relatively short legs and like the baza's, weak feet. The largest prey the Red Kite takes is small baby rabbits, but like many of the Kites it mainly eats carrion which leads to it often being thought to kill much larger quarry than it really does. When looking at the kites notice the foot size - you will see they are small in comparison to the size of the bird - a sure sign of weak feet and small prey base.

In amongst the Kites are the honey buzzards. These are very kite like, but lack the forked tail that marks many of the kites. The honey buzzards have specialised in their prey - they all, as far as we know eat wasp and bee grubs, from the honey comb when they can.

The last of the kites is the Brahminy Kite, this is a fishing kite, which leads nicely to the fishing Eagles. You will see a very good selection of this group at the Centre. Note that many of them have either white tails, or other large areas of white plumage. The largest of all is the Steller's Sea Eagle, this stunning bird is one of the big four eagles, has a huge beak and lives on the far north eastern Chinese and Russian coastline. All the fish Eagles, including the best known the American Bald Eagle and our own White-tailed Sea Eagle, catch fish by snatch lifting them from the surface of the water, but unlike the Osprey they will eat other prey items as well. In fact they will eat almost anything they can find. They are greedy, noisy birds and will happily eat carrion. They are also dramatic flyers, particularly the White-bellied Sea-eagle, which does a dramatic cart-wheeling flight in the wild.

Next come the Old World Vultures. When you look at them, you will see that unlike the New World vultures, their feet are more eagle-like and you can't see right through their nostrils or nares as you can with the American vultures. The smallest is the Egyptian Vulture, which actually is found in Africa Europe, Asia and India. It is called the Egyptian Vulture because it is seen in the hieroglyphics in the Egyptian Tombs. The largest is probably the European Black Vulture, also known as the Cinerous Vulture. Birds often have more than one name, that is why it is important to know the scientific name as it is unique mistakes cannot be made. The Bearded Vulture is a huge bird as well and feeds almost solely on bones. It picks up large ones that it can't swallow and flies up and drops them onto the mountain side to break them into smaller pieces. The vultures in Africa eat more meat than all the other carnivores, such as lions, cheetahs, hyenas and so on, put together. If it were not for the vultures in India and Africa there would be much more disease, as the vultures clear away all the dead and diseased animals.

The Snake Eagles as their name suggests eat snakes among other prey items. They mostly have large heads and eyes and very tough scales on their feet to protect them from bites. All have yellow eyes and none are found in the New World. They have mostly specialised in eating snakes and reptiles, the Bateleur is a bit of an exception as it will take small mammals and eat carrion as well. Most have a short crest of feathers at the back of their head.

There are 13 species of Harriers found around the world. All have a slight facial disc of feathers round the eyes somewhat like, but less marked than that of the owls. All have long broad wings, but a light body weight, giving them the ability to hunt by flying low and slow, again a little like some of the owls, looking and listening for mice and voles and small birds in marshland, coastal, arable farm land and moorland areas. They have long legs and weak feet. In some species the males are a different colour from the females.

Next comes an assortment of raptors, some of which are more closely related to the former sub family - the harriers and some of which are nearer to the accipiters or true hawks The Gymnogene or African Harrier Hawk, which was first bred in captivity, outside Africa, at the Centre. This is a large lightweight bird similar to the harrier, but it has a double-jointed ankle, which allows it to bend its foot the wrong way up to 40%. This enables it to take baby birds by putting its leg down hollow trees and holes in cliffs and hooking out the young. Also in this group are the Chanting Goshawks; and the Gabar Goshawks, these the Centre bred as a world first. They have a melanistic or black phase, which is very striking and in the wild their nests are often occupied by and coated with the webs of colonial spiders.

The accipiters is the largest genus (related group) of birds not only in birds of prey, but, of all birds - 49 species in all. The Variable Goshawk has the greatest number of subspecies - 23. The accipiters or true hawks, such as the Sparrowhawk and Goshawk - the only two of this group found in the UK, are mainly forest living birds. They vary in size from one of the tiniest of all the diurnal birds of prey - the African Little Sparrowhawk weighing between 74 - 105 grams to the Northern Goshawk, some of which can weigh in at 1509 grams. Short rounded wings, long tails for good steering and for brakes, usually yellow or orange eyes, although not always, and a nervous disposition. The goshawks have thick strong legs and powerful feet, the sparrowhawks have thin, fine legs, long toes and needle sharp talons.

Moving through another odd grouping which has some wonderful names like the Plumbeous Hawk, the Grasshopper Buzzard, the Semiplumbeous Hawk. Here you will see the Grey Buzzard-eagle and the Harris Hawk. None of these really fit into either the Accipiters or the Buteos (true Buzzards), but instead could be called another link. The Harris Hawk is a very unusual raptor because it is truly sociable. In the most northern part of their range they will live, breed and hunt together in groups and adults will help young. Young will feed other young and birds will work together as a team when hunting.

The buzzards or buteos are another large genus or group. Over the last few years the Common Buzzard which used only to be found in Wales and the west side of Britain has increased dramatically and now can be seen soaring and gliding over much of Britain's farmlands. If you see a large bird over two feet high either sitting on the ground or a post you will most likely have seen one. And that describes many of the buzzards or buteos, they tend to be lazy sedentary birds. Large broad wings and a short tail, they will sit for hours still hunting, or will soar on thermals or on ridge currents. They hunt mainly small mammal, reptiles and feed on a great deal of carrion.

Close to the buteos but usually larger come the eagles. Its interesting to see how it all works and how each group of birds follows on from the last, continuing to change and evolve. There are a number of eagles, some well known, some very rare, all with their powers much exaggerated by mankind. The rarest is probably the Philippine Eagle - a huge forest eagle that has had much of its habitat destroyed. A similar problem is happening with the Harpy Eagle - another huge forest eagle but this time from South America. The most widely spread of all the eagles is the Golden Eagle found in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere. The largest of the African eagles is the Martial Eagle.

Many of these large birds live in the mountains and open plains of the world. But some have evolved to become more hawk-like and live in the woods and forests of the world. The largest of these is the African Crowned Eagle and the smallest is Wallace's Hawk Eagle. There are eight hawk eagle species that can be found in South East Asia, however, like the Philippine eagle, their days may well be numbered if the primary forests around the world continue to be felled at the rate they are being lost today.

The Falcons and Caracaras
(Scientific Family Name Falconidae)

This group contains four different groups - the falcons, the caracaras, the forest falcons and the pygmy falcons.

The caracaras do not look much like the falcons, but there are similarities and the eggs they lay are exactly the same lovely mottled brown colouration. They all come from Central or South America. The Common Caracara is the best documented, several of the caracaras are little understood and have even less information written about them. Two of the species are forest living and like any forest species they are difficult to study. As the forest declines the habitat for these birds go and although they are not defined as endangered, it seems logical that if their habitat is endangered then by definition - so are they. Most of the caracaras have long strong legs as they spend a great deal of time on the ground. They are very intelligent birds and although they hunt small mammals and birds occasionally, they are opportunist feeders and will eat carrion and even rotten fruit.

The forest falcons are a small group of birds that live in the forests of South America. The first study on the breeding biology of this group was only undertaken in 1992, so it is hardly surprising that little is known about these birds. They all look somewhat hawk like, they all nest in tree cavities and lay whitish eggs rather than the typical brown mottled eggs of the falcons and caracaras. They feed on a wide variety of forest fauna - insects, birds, snakes, reptiles and possibly small mammals, although with several species virtually nothing is known.

The smallest of all the diurnal raptors are the falconets. One species comes from South America - the Spot-winged Falconet, one species from Africa, originally known as the African Pygmy Falcon and six from south east Asia. They all nest in holes or old bird nests, they lay white eggs. Most are quite vocal and do a visual display with head bobbing and tail flipping. They feed mainly on large insects, small birds, reptiles and the occasional mammal. The smallest weighs under 50 grams and the young hatch at under 5 grams.

The last group in the diurnal raptors is the true falcons. These contain the well-known Peregrine and the Kestrel, the ladies falcon - the Merlin and many others. There are 13 species of Kestrels, most of these little birds live in a wide variety of habitats including towns, farm land woodland edges and the more open areas. Most live on insects, reptiles and small mammals and most can and do hover.

The other group of smaller falcons include the merlins, hobby's new zealand falcon and all the australian falcons except for the peregrine. These birds do not have the ability to hover like the kestrels and most live in the more open areas of the world.

The large falcons are all birds of the open plains, mountains, deserts, savanna and similar terrain. Being larger they hunt larger prey and most live on birds or mammals with occasional forays on insects when termites start to fly. They have weak feet in comparison to the hawks, but the beak is very powerful and if quarry is not killed instantly by the speed of the stoop. The falcons have a special tooth on the beak called the tomial tooth, this is used to break the neck of the quarry caught. Nearly all the falcons have long pointed wings and fairly short tails and most have dark brown eyes. None of the falcons build their own nest, but either dig a scrape in the ground or on cliff ledges or even in the build up of dirt on high rise building ledges. Some choose holes in trees and some will use other bird nests.

Nocturnal birds of Prey (Owls)
(Scientific group name Strigiformes)

The Barn Owls
Scientific family name Tytonidae

Probably the best known and loved of all the owls are the barn owls. They are found throughout the world, with different species living in different areas and habitats, but all looking very like the Barn Owl we know. Of all the owls, they have the most marked facial disc giving them the heart-shaped look that they all have. Several of the Barn Owl species are rare - mainly because their habitat is reducing and this is affecting them badly. Like all the owls they use their hearing as much if not more than their eyesight to locate their prey. It is said that a barn owl can locate a mouse in zero light - i.e. in pitch darkness using only its hearing to locate and catch the moving mouse.

Between the barn owls and all the other owls are two species of owls called Bay owls. One comes from the far east and one from Africa - there is very little known on the African bird, apart from one dead specimen and more recently owls being heard. The Oriental Bay Owl is better known. Smaller than the barn owls and the facial disc is more square than heart- shaped, these are forest owls a little bigger than the European little owl.

The Rest of the Owls - sometimes known as the Eared-Owls
(Scientific family name Strigidae)

All the other species of owls are put under one family name although they vary a great deal and are divided into two sub families.

The Buboninae contains small to tiny owls such as the White-faced scops owl from Africa and the European Scops owl which only weighs about 60 grams. These scops owls form the biggest group with 34 species. Also in the same sub-family are the eagle owls which are large to very large owls, all with feather ear tufts. The biggest of all is the Eurasian Eagle owl and the females can go up to 9lbs in weight.

The fishing owls look similar to the eagle owls although they tend to have longer ear tufts, but they don't have feathered legs and toes, as they drop their feet into the water when fishing. Thus their legs and feet are kept dry.

The tiniest of all the owls sit in this subfamily - the pygmy owls, the Least Pygmy Owl has a descriptive scientific name - Glaucidium minutissimum. All the hawk owls come under the same grouping but these are divided. There is one northern Hawk Owl - you can see it at the Centre, all the others come from the southern hemisphere. As their name denotes they have a hawk-like build with the same long tail that typifies the hawks. The northern hawk owl flies in a very hawk-like manner and will happily hunt in the full daylight during the summer months. The Australian ninox owls are in this group too.

All the Australian owls are either Barn Owls (tytos) or belonging to the group (genus) ninox and they have some very odd ones, in two species the males are bigger than the females - which is unusual - mostly its the other way round. The female of the Sooty Owl on the other hand has a huge size difference between the females and males. In some races of this species, males are so tiny - they were even thought to be a different species.

The other sub-family in the owls is the Striginae. Our own well-known and commonest owl - the Tawny Owl belongs here, along with the Barred Owl, Great Gray Owl and the beautiful Asian Wood Owl. Also found in the UK are the Short-eared and Long-eared owls, which come in this group. The Fearful Owl from the Solomon Islands is a relatively small owl, but with a very powerful beak and huge feet for its size, it is said to be as powerful as a Great Horned Owl.

The last in the sub-family are four tiny high forest owls, the Boreal Owl, also known as Tengmalms owl inhabits the cool forests of europe and north america.

Jemima Parry-Jones MBE
Director
The National Birds of Prey Centre
Newent
Gloucestershire
GL18 1JJ
United Kingdom

Tel +44 (0) 870 990 1992