At noon on May 10, 2024, a "fight in the air" was seen over the Liuhe Tower in Hangzhou.
The thing is very simple. First, I saw a big bird hovering over Liuhe Pagoda. Thinking that it should be an "eagle" that I rarely see, I raised my camera and started recording.
was thinking while taking pictures, wow, we can actually see the "Eagle" in the sky above Hangzhou!
But unexpectedly, a bird much smaller than the "eagle" suddenly appeared on the screen. Then the 14-second chase begins.
During the whole chase, I saw the "eagle" constantly turning over to avoid it, but the bird was chasing after it.
Even if an "eagle" only needs to flap its wings once to fly a long distance, a bird needs to flap its wings three or four times to catch up.
They flew sideways and chased each other for a while.
After a while, the bird flew like a "bullet" to the "eagle".
After a while, they took off again.
In the end, the two birds disappeared behind the Liuhe Pagoda.
I asked Mr. Dong Si, the vice chairman of the Wild Bird Branch of the Zhejiang Wildlife Conservation Association, for advice. He said from the video, the two birds should be a snake eagle and a large-billed crow.
Snake eagles are also eagles. Familiar raptors such as eagles, eagles, harriers, etc. are all members of the Accipitridae family. In a narrow sense, small birds of prey from the family Accipitridae are generally called hawks, and large birds of prey from the family Accipitridae are generally called eagles.
It is also a resident bird in Hangzhou and can often be observed in the Baoshi Mountain area. Snake eagles are distributed throughout the mountainous areas of Zhejiang and are relatively rare in plain areas.
The snake eagle is called the snake eagle because it feeds on snakes, as well as lizards, frogs, rodents, birds and crustaceans. Considered a large raptor. Precisely because it eats snakes, ancient Chinese people thought it was a poisonous bird. Soaking its feathers in wine can make poisonous wine, hence the idiom "drinking poison to quench thirst".
The large-billed crows chasing the "eagle" are actually very fierce in themselves. They can swarm and besiege some raptors. At the same time, they are also very smart. The story "The Crow Drinks Water" in the primary school Chinese textbook is about the big-billed crow.
During the attack on the snake eagle, the large-billed crow will use its claws and beak to specifically attack the wings of the snake eagle, so that the snake eagle can only circle to avoid it.
In Hangzhou, snake eagles and large-billed crows are becoming more and more common. They often walk around the West Lake mountains. Pay more attention to your surroundings, and you may see them too.
