Whistling Teal Fleeing Marsh Harrier Attack

[Nishith Kumar]

This picture was taken in Nawabganj Bird Sanctuary on 8th of March 2015. The wetland is full of water bird including many indigenous as well as few migratory species. I was busy shooting ducks with my camera when suddenly this kite swooped down like a fighter jet from mid air on the ducks basking in the evening sun. The ducks quaked, few dived while few flew off like the one in the picture. Everything happened instantly and I was so awestruck by the sequence of event that I was only able to capture couple ofCa pics of this interesting prey vs predator behaviour!

Exif Data:

Camera: Canon 60D
Lens: Sigma 150-500mm
Aperture: 6.3
ISO: 1600
Exposure time: 1/1600
Focal Length: 313mm
Handheld
Cropped

-Nishith

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

A drama of the Jungle nicely documented. Looks like Brahminy Kite attacking...........It does attack small birds, chicks in the Sundarbans. But in the instant case, looking at the size of the prey, its a chase which may not end up with a kill. Thanks for sharing. SaktiWild

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Superb moment freezed here. this is a marsh harrier chasing a whistling teal...a month ago i saw this very same combination down south here on calicut outskirts ( it almost looks like the chase continued all the way there... ). That attack failed and the teal got away , this seems more close. what happened? marsh harriers regularly go after smaller water birds like coots, jacanas and teals.

TFS
Roopak

[Nishith Kumar]

Thanks Saktipada and Roopak for liking the pic Luckily for the whistling teal it was a failed attack
The Marsh Harrier came pretty close to the teal ( I do have another pic but it's a bit out of focus) but amazingly it got away from its claw..

-Nishith

[Nishith Kumar]

Here's another picture from the same chase just to show how close the Marsh harrier came to it's prey!!

-Nishith

[Roopak Gangadharan]

WOW...this is a superb record Nishith..pls post this as a series in the natural history section with the images you have in a sequence. Not many records of a marsh harrier going after its prey in mid air flight.

There is a theory (based on a paper by Matthieu Guillemain , Michel Lepley , Herve Fritz & Nathalie Hecker (2007) Marsh Harriers Circus aeruginosus target Teals Anas crecca ) of how they flush large flocks of ducks and other birds in water bodies by flying over them to test if there are any injured, sick or flightless birds and then attack such birds.

TFS
Roopak

[Mrudul Godbole]

Very interesting natural history moment captured. I downloaded and zoomed in to see that the claw was just touching the teal. It was so close. Do post the images in the natural history section. Very rare sighting. Thanks for sharing.

[Samrat Sarkar]

very interesting documentation sir...

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Nishith it will be good if you can add some tags like Marsh Harrier, Attack, Teal to the Natural history post. Also request Mrudul to change the subject of this post if possible.

TFS
Roopak

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Interesting natural history moment captured. There is a slight green cast in the images. It should be in natural history section so that others can see it later as well.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Nishith Kumar]

Thanks everyone for the appreciation:-) Feel free to shift the post to natural history section!

-Nishith