AVES DE RAPINA: Quem são? Quantas existem? Qual a MAIOR ÁGUIA DO BRASIL? ÁGUIAS, GAVIÕES e FALCÔES

Hawfinches have always aroused our curiosity and admiration. And Brazil is the country of hawfinches. Of the almost 600 species that exist in the world, 96 occur in the country. And in this mini-documentary, you will learn surprising details about these birds, from the rarest to those found in the city. And for those who don't know me, I'm William Encke, ornithologist, a great enthusiast and specialist in hawfinches. It's hard not to be impressed with the impotence of a hawfinch. They are birds that have certain characteristics for hunting, such as a curved and sharp beak, strong claws, powerful flight, excellent hearing and binocular vision. I'm suspicious to say, but Brazil is a privileged country when it comes to hawfinches. In the country, one of the largest and most powerful eagles in the world, the harpy, occurs. And it's a huge eagle. Females weigh up to 9 kg, up to 1 meter in length and wingspan of up to 2 meters. It's a winged queen of our forests. But in Brazil there are several other fantastic hawfinch birds, such as the beautiful penacho hawk, the enigmatic false irasso, or even the rare orange-breasted hawk. And for those who don't know, the term hawfinch or hawkbird is traditionally used to refer to the birds of the orders acipriformes, falconiformes, catartiformes and strigiformes. In other words, hawfinches are those we call eagles, hawks, hawks and owls. Hawks and owls, although they are carnivores, also belong to the group of hawfinch birds. The word hawfinch has a Latin origin, which means to rapt, simply referring to the way of obtaining food from many species, to take something, in this case the prey, and take it with you. And speaking of food, if there is something that stands out in hawks, it is the diet. All the appearance of the species is directly related to the diet, environment and hunting behavior. Birds that hunt in the interior of forests have rounded and short wings, and a long tail, which helps them to fly among the obstacles of the forest. The birds that live in open areas and fly high in the sky for long periods, have long and wide wings, while birds that hunt through chase or high-speed attacks, as is the case of many hawks, have narrow and pointed wings, which is ideal for speed. And the diet varies a lot between species, most hawkbirds are generalists and opportunists, that is, they hunt whatever comes close to them. Of course not all species are like that, the birds of the genus Acipter, for example, which we call Tauatós, are highly specialized in bird hunting in flight. The Peneira hawk, a bird that soars in the air like a butterfly, in the late afternoons, what he really likes is to eat rats. Hawks of the genus Ictnia, or Sovis, basically eat flying insects. The hawk hawk is a specialist in snakes, 70% of what he eats are snakes. Even the poisonous species such as rattlesnakes and jarraracas can become food. What about the fishing eagle? Well, the name says what it eats, right? And there is no way to fail to mention the cormorant hawk, this one is very specialized, he eats exclusively aquatic cormorants. It is easily recognized by its thin, long and curved beak, which is specialized for this unusual diet. And with this beak he practically spits the skunk without having to break the shell. The powerful hawk, in the Amazon, hunts mainly monkeys and sloths, being able to capture primates up to 8 kg, a powerful predator. But of course, it can also catch other species of mammals and birds. A question that many people have is whether hawkbirds hunt every day. Well, it really depends a lot on the species. There are hawks and hawks that eat practically every day, while there are large species with slower metabolism, as is the case of the harpy, that hunt 2 to 3 times a week. In general, hawkbirds live alone or in pairs, few species live in groups. And one of these species is the big crane, a hawk related to the crows, found in the Amazon and in the Cerrado. It lives in groups of 3 to 8 individuals, and the cool thing is that they work in a team. When the group is eating or hunting in the forest floor, there are always one or two individuals who stay there on guard at the top of a tree. At the first sign of danger, it emits a warning call for the group to protect itself. This hawk's vocalization is sensational, right? And speaking of vocalization, most species emit communication or warning calls, rarely singing, in fact. But some birds have really striking songs. This is the song of the hawk, you can hear it from far away, and it is common for the couple to sing together in a duet. The hawk's vocalization, I think, should give the goose bumps and the feathers of the hawk that are prey to this species. Another group of hawks that sing very often are the forest hawks, the genus Micrastreus. And these hawks, which are strictly forest, they sing a lot, very often, as soon as it dawns or in the late afternoon. Sometimes singing until the beginning of the night. And they are songs of territorial demarcation, which are more frequent in the reproductive period. Another subject that I really like in hawks is reproduction. These birds build real works of art on the top of trees. It's like this, the species of the order Asyptryiformes, which are the ones we call eagles and hawks, build well-crafted nests with branches and twigs. The harpy's nest, for example, is huge, it can exceed two meters in diameter. Built almost always on top of chestnuts, sumaúmas, angelins and jatobás. Often more than 30 meters high. But not all hawks build nests. Urubus and hawks, for example, have not developed such ability. These birds are usually reproduced in cavities or tree hollows, abandoned nests, platforms on rocky walls, or even directly on the ground, as some urubus do. And during reproduction, it is very interesting to see the division of tasks between the couple. In most species, the female incubates the eggs and takes care of the cubs, while the male is responsible for bringing food to her and the cubs in the nest. Only when the cubs or cubs get bigger, the female becomes more absent in the nest, to also help in the task of finding food, both for her and for the cubs. The truth is that both parents work hard to support the cubs, right? And it's exciting to see the care the parents have for their cubs. Throughout reproduction, both parents usually bring branches and green branches to the nest. Probably as a way to repel insects and cover rotten remains of prey in the nest. The number of cubs that each species has varies a lot. Great eagles usually have a single cub, rarely two. And when that happens, it is common for the oldest to kill the youngest, a behavior that we call in biology caninism. But there are other species, such as the hawk hawk, which can have two, three or even more cubs. And if all goes well, they can all grow healthy and reach the age of leaving the nest. And speaking of leaving the nest, hawkbirds are not born knowing how to fly. In fact, this is a huge challenge and requires a lot of training. When the cubs get bigger, they start to exercise their wings still in the nest. And little by little, they take small leaps from one corner to the other of the nest, or from one branch to the other, until they take their first flights. Hawkbirds can be found in all environments in Brazil. Most species are found in forests, but there are hawks that live in open and semi-open areas of the country, in the Cerrado, in the Caatinga, as is the case of the Caboclo hawk and the famous Carcará. Easily found in the northeastern hinterland. Even in more urbanized cities, hawkbirds live. Like, for example, the little kiri-kiri, a little hawk that does very well in the urban area, using poles and electricity wires as a pole to look for insects and other animals on the ground. And if the city has a few trees in the streets and some parks, some green areas, more species of hawks can be seen. And there is a very famous bird in Brazil that few people know can be found in the country. And I say more, it is found even in many cities. It is the spectacular peregrine hawk. It is an original migratory hawk from North America. Every year, more or less from October, it appears in Brazil, and stays on Brazilian soil until March or April. And the favorite prey of this bird are pigeons and bats. Mainly pigeons, you see? This hawk hunts these prey in flight. In some of these hunts, in its free-fall flight, it can exceed 340 km per hour, which gives it the title of the fastest animal in the world. In addition to the peregrine hawk, there are 9 species of migratory hawks in the country. One of these other very interesting migrants is the scissor hawk, easily recognized by the tail pattern. This bird mainly eats flying insects. And among the rarest hawking birds in the country is the false irasso, the Guianese morph. It is very similar to the harpy, but it is a little smaller, has a black mask, and has even more reserved habits. It is even rarer than the harpy. If you liked this video, leave a like, a comment. If you are not subscribed to the channel, subscribe, because this is a channel for scientific dissemination about our birds. And every week, every Thursday at 10.30 pm, there is a new video here. Thanks for the audience as always, and see you in the next video.