Birds of prey refer to ferocious birds, with claws for hunting prey and hooks for tearing meat pieces, and are carnivorous birds. According to its behavioral habits, it is divided into day-traveling and nocturnal, and the falcon order is a day-moving raptor, including the eagle family, falcon family, American vulture family, osprey family and snake vulture family. Owls are nocturnal birds of prey. Later, through genetic sequencing, it was found that falcons are not of our race, and are closely related to cranes and parrots, and are quite distant from eagles, so the eagle family and the American vulture family, vulture family, and snake vulture family are assigned to the newly established eagle order, and the falcon family remains alone in the original falcon order. There are many subfamilies in the eagle family, and there are several subfamilies in China, such as the eagle subfamily, the subfamily Iris, the subfamily eagle, the subfamily of the sea eagle, the subfamily of the eagle family, and the subfamily Vulture.
gyrfalcon
In a narrow sense, birds of the eagle subfamily can be called "eagles", in a broad sense, "eagles" can also refer to the entire eagle family and falcons, such as falcons and dogs that help humans hunt are called "eagle dogs", in fact, falcons are a vague name, can be eagles, sparrowhawks, harriers, can be peregrine falcons, falcons, spear falcons (also known as Haidongqing), can also be the golden eagles of the eagle subfamily falcon family. Even eagles can be called "eagles", such as the ospreys of the osprey family commonly known as "ospreys", even the cormorants of the pelican family cormorants are also called "ospreys", and even the birds of the order Owl are called "owls". However, Huangxian dialect is the opposite, as long as it is a bird of prey circling in the sky, it is called "old eagle". Taking "carving" as a synonym for a falcon-like bird of prey, I don't know if this is a remnant of Ancient Chinese.
There are eagles in the mountains of my hometown, and eagles like to perch on high and steep cliffs, build ground nests on protruding stone platforms, or burrow in natural caves. When holding a kitty, it is often seen that the eagle grabs the prey and flies into the nest, and it is not difficult to find the location of the eagle's nest. And the eagle is not too hygienic, and the stones under the nest are covered with white feces, which is very conspicuous in the green mountain forest. However, the adult pinched his ear and told him not to take out the eagle, saying that the eagle's wings have a thousand pounds of strength, and they can knock you down with one wing and fall to pieces. Eagles can grab a lamb and fly high into the air, and the power of its wings is naturally very large, and it is not a joke to be next to it. Of course, it is also possible that because eagles are beneficial birds, in order to protect the young chicks of eagles, they are so "scared" (Jiaodong folk use the "scare education method", we grew up in various scares from childhood).
The impression is that the eagle is very cold, especially in the autumn when the stalks are harvested, the eagle spreads its wings, rides the updraft between the valleys, and hovers motionless in the air, as if asleep. The ancients called kites "paper kites" and "paper harriers", which is the inspiration obtained from here. I only had one close encounter with eagles when I was a kid.
goshawk
That autumn, a young man in the village came up the hill when he encountered an injured eagle and caught it back. When I heard the news, his door was already crowded with people, and a chicken cage made of cotton locust strips was holding an eagle. A young man next to him was emotionally recounting the process of encountering and injuring the eagle during its capture, and he had a blood hole in his arm, apparently for the eagle's claws to grasp. This eagle is not small, with a wingspan of more than one meter, a brownish-black back with dark spots, a black-brown longitudinal stripe on the throat, and brown transverse spots on the chest, abdomen, and flanks. This should be a goshawk, the largest eagle around us (eagle owl Yellow County dialect also called "hate fox", weighing up to eight or nine pounds, much heavier than the goshawk, but it is not a real eagle after all). It can be seen that this eagle is very young, perhaps the newborn eagle of the year, who had some accidents during the practice of flying or hunting, and injured one wing. Although it looks a little awkward when it is locked in a chicken cage, its eyes are still so arrogant and cold, revealing a kind of untamed wildness.
More common in the mountains is the sparrowhawk, known as the "sparrow eagle" in Huangxian dialect, with a dark gray upper body, a fine black longitudinal stripe on the throat, and a russet and dark brown transverse spots on the chest and abdomen. With broad, rounded wings, flexible maneuvers and a long tail for easy direction control, this body structure is ideal for navigating through the woods.
Eurasian sparrowhawk
The finches feed mainly on finches, insects and rodents, but also prey on pigeon-shaped birds. I heard my grandmother say that one winter when there was heavy snow, there was a "hawk sparrow" who was cold and hungry, dying next to the firewood on the platform, and could have half a pound, at that time Grandma was alone with a few children in the countryside, the days were difficult, so she stewed the eagle finches, who knew that the meat was not cooked for a long time, and the smell was very big, making it difficult to swallow. I suspect that the eagle is the sparrowhawk, because the sparrowhawk is a small bird of prey and generally does not weigh more than six or two.
The unit where I work is built in a seaside windbreak, separated by a river ditch, on the east bank of the river is a large meadow, and on the edge of the grass is a patch of black pine forest, the sun shines down, the height is staggered, the grass is mottled, like a Russian oil painting. On one of the highest pine trees on the edge of the woodland, a pair of eagles lived, and during the spring breeding season, an eagle could often be seen grabbing a captured bird and flying back. The eagle will adjust the body of the prey to itself to reduce air resistance. From a distance, it looked like a small plane with a bomb hanging from under its belly. For a while, the unit had raised twenty or thirty hens to make full use of the vacant land under the forest, and the eggs laid were distributed to employees as welfare. One day, while walking, I heard a commotion on the other side of the chicken pen, and when I looked over, the hens were all hiding to the side, clucking and barking, and in the open space, a hen was lying there, and an eagle was riding on it, and when someone came, the eagle turned its head and looked at it, and barked a few times, as if expressing dissatisfaction. I drew a wooden stick from the stack of firewood, and it loosened its claws and flew away reluctantly. The hen shrank to one side with a wilted look, and there was a very thin hole in its back, probably injured by the eagle's claws, and it didn't take long to die.
Sparrowhawk
The eagle is much smaller than the hen, I thought it was a sparrowhawk, checked the original pine sparrowhawk, the body shape is slightly smaller than the sparrowhawk, the plumage is lighter than the sparrowhawk, the chest and abdomen are more brownish red horizontal spots, a bit like the color of pine bark, it is its pine camouflage. Later, in order to prevent eagle attacks, four more geese were bought and raised with hens to serve as bodyguards for the hens. The goose walked and swayed, looking a little funny, a little sloppy, but those who had been swept by the goose as children would never doubt their combat effectiveness, and the eagle did not dare to come again. Later, the woodland and grassland were converted into residential areas, and pieces of high-rise buildings were built into cement forests, but they were no longer suitable for the eagles to live, and the eagle who tried to steal chickens should have also been displaced.
Some of the pictures are quoted from the Internet, and the copyright belongs to the original author