Two feathered hunters joined a group of onlookers during a special Saturday event at the Arkansas Museum of Natural History Jan. 25.
Trent Powell with the Gov. Mike Huckabee Delta Rivers Nature Center brought a red-tailed hawk and great horned owl to meet those attending the Hawks and Owls program at the museum.
During the program, Powell discussed each bird’s importance to the ecosystem, other species and recognizable features on both the red-tailed hawk and the great horned owl.
Powell began by introducing the red-tailed hawk, which are commonly found in North America.
“The reason I always like starting out with these guys and showing these guys is because they show every feature that it takes to be a bird of prey really, really well,” Powell said.
He said the first thing people look at to determine if a bird is a bird of prey are the eyes.
Powell said if humans had the eyes of a red-tailed hawk, we would be able to read a newspaper from a length of a football field away.
The second thing people look at for a bird of prey is the beak.
“If you look at at any bird in the wild and you look at the shape of their beak, you can figure out what they eat based off of the shape of their beak — it’s entirely utilitarian,” Powell said.
The third thing people look for are the talons.
Powell said red-tailed hawks have 250 pounds of square-inch pressure in its feet, which is enough pressure to squeeze and break a human finger.
He said the birds will use their talons to catch and kill prey like mice and rats.
Powell also said red-tailed hawks are known to eat carrion, or the decaying flesh of dead animals. He said this is also true for vultures, like the turkey and black vulture.
He said turkey vultures rely on their sense of smell and can locate a rotting carcass from up to a mile away.
“Birds of prey are incredibly important to our ecosystem,” Powell said. “Vultures are actually removing a lot of...dead animals, dead material, dead organic material from our environments. They actually help keep us healthy because they’re removing bacteria and diseases from our environment.”
Powell said since some birds of prey will scavenge for carrion and the roadside is a popular place to find dead animals, there is a high chance of young birds of prey getting hit by a car.
He said if someone finds an injured bird on the side of the road that it’s best to call animal control, the Nature Center or an agency that responds to injured animals.
“A lot of people will try and go up and grab them...a lot of people get lucky,” Powell said. “If a bird is hit by a car, when it’s first hit, they’re really, really groggy. …. A couple hours later, the next day, that bird’s active again and it’s moving around — it can be. If they were trying to pick it up then, it could actually hurt them.”
Powell then moved on to owls and the four resident species in Arkansas. He said that means these species don’t migrate in and out of the state.
The residents include the eastern screech owl, barn owl, barred owl and great horned owl.
The great horned owl was one of Powell’s special guests. He said those birds of prey have 14 bones in their neck. Even with their great range and flexibility, the great horned owl is only able to turn its head about 270 degrees.
He also said the great horned owl is known as the “bullies of the forest,” and have a pretty bad reputation because of their treatment of other species.
“These guys will actually eat the little screech owls and they actually pick on all these other birds, no matter how big the other bird is,” Powell said. “They’ll actually pick on and eat bald eagles.”
Powell said the great horned owls have about 500 pounds per square-inch pressure in their talons, which is the same amount as a bald eagle. However, the great horned owl is about the same size as a red-tailed hawk.
He also said the bird of prey will hunt during sunrise and sunset, which helps feeding times with other birds of prey. Another attribute that helps this bird is its ears.
Powell said the fluffy points on the owl are just for show and that its ears are actually asymmetrical and simply holes on the sides of the bird’s head.
The last bird Powell talked about was eagles. He said Arkansas gets hundreds of eagles in the winter to nest.
However, he also mentioned bald eagles are a federally protected species. Powell said it’s illegal to shoot bald eagles and have a feather from the bird, although Indengous People can receive a permit to have a feather.
He said it’s also illegal to have a feather from a number of migratory birds, and if someone finds a feather from one of the birds to leave it on the ground.